Stages of Renal Cancer
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Renal Cancer overview
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Renal cell carcinoma, or kidney cancer, is one of the most dangerous types of cancers with a 60 percent to 70 percent five-year survival rate after diagnosis. Renal cancer is diagnosed when tumors are discovered in the tiny tubes in the kidneys that remove waste products and filter blood, known as the proximal convoluted tubules.
Renal cancer classifications
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The American Joint Committee on Cancer created the Tumor, Node, and Metastasized (TNM) staging system so doctors could uniformly identify how far the cancer had spread and share that information with the rest of the team.
The "T" classification measures how large the primary tumor is and what parts of the kidney it occupies.
The "N" indicates how many lymph nodes are affected by the cancerous tumor. Lymph nodes are the immune system cells that fight off diseases and can be weakened by cancerous cells.
The "M" identifies if the cancer is spreading or metastasizing to other parts of the body, such as the lungs or liver.
A second classification of numbers after the initial TNM indicates the severity of the cancer, with zero on the low end showing no evidence of a tumor and four on the high end indicating the cancerous cells have spread throughout the body. A lowercase "a" or "b" after the number indicates the size of the tumor in the kidney.
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Renal cancer stage grouping
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Once the TNM is classified, doctors put patients into one of four stages. The lower the stage means the better chance a person has to survive. Doctors use data of patients in previous situations to indicate the chances of a current patient to recovery fully.
Stage one indicates a tumor is smaller than 11.5 inches and has not spread to the lymph nodes or other organs. Also, the tumor has not left the kidneys. The survival rate for a stage one diagnosis is 96 percent.
A stage two diagnosis tells the patient that the tumor is fairly large--bigger than 11.5 inche--but the cancerous cells are still only in the kidneys and lymph nodes and other organs are not affected. About 82 percent of patients live at least another five years with a stage two diagnosis.
A stage three diagnosis shows the tumor can be any size and is beginning to leave the kidneys. It has begun to affect lymph nodes in the surrounding area, and has also affected the fatty tissues on the outside of the kidneys. However, the cancerous cells have not begun to touch any other organs at this time. Sixty-four percent of patients in this stage live to the five-year mark.
Stage four is the harshest of diagnosis and indicates a 23 percent survival rate of five years. This stage diagnosis indicates the tumor is any size, has started to affect lymph nodes and has spread throughout the body to other organs such as the lungs, heart or liver. With modern technology, a large percentage of renal cancer patient's diagnoses are caught before they reach stage four.
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