Here is the first part of the top 4 questions people frequently ask about kidney cancer. I collected these questions from the Internet, such as Ask.com, Yahoo answers and other professional cancer websites and forums, then chose the top 4 from them by asking frequency and gave these questions the best answers.
Q1. How long does an advanced kidney cancer patient have? Or How long does someone with stage 4 Renal cell carcinoma have?
This is the most frequently asked question about kidney cancer, people always need to know how long they can stay with their family, their loved ones. However, there is not a simple answer for this question, because the situations vary from patient to patient.
First of all, let's take a look at the official 5-years survival rate. Generally, if the cancer is diagnosed at stage 1, the prognosis is good because a complete surgical resection of the cancerous growth is possible, the 5-years survival rate is 90%. The 5-years survival rate for stage 2 is 65 - 75%. At stage 3 the kidney cancer 5-years survival rate drops to 40 - 70% because the cancer would have spread to the nearby lymph nodes. At stage 4, the overall 5 year survival rate is barely 10%. If you still want to ask exactly how long does a particular kidney cancer patient have, please also consider the following factors, such as the general health state of the patient, patient's emotional and spiritual strength, how fast does the cancer grow and patient's treatment (see treatment options). All of these factors make the survival rate vary from patient to patient.
There are 4 most important factors in extending life for advanced kidney cancer patients you may want to see, see the link at the bottom.
Q2. How to relieve pain for an advanced kidney cancer patient?
The pain of advanced kidney cancer is hard to tolerate. Cancer pain is caused by the tumour pressing on bones, nerves or other organs in your body in most cases. To relieve symptom, the ideal way is to remove the source of the pain, for example, through surgery, chemotherapy, radiation (3D Conformal Radiotherapy (3D-CRT). Research shows that combination of radiotherapy and other therapies (such as targeted therapy) can do a better job.). If that cannot be done, pain medications can usually control the pain. Strong opioid medications for advanced renal cell carcinoma includes: morphine, oxycodone, hydromorphone, fentanyl or methadone, but these pain medications have many risks. As I said in another SUTENT side effects post (you can find it on my site), read the instruction books or official websites first before whatever you are going to take.
Specialized treatment, such as nerve blocks, also may be applicable. Nerve blocks are a local anesthetic that is injected around or into a nerve, which prevents pain messages traveling along that nerve pathway from reaching the brain. Other therapies, such as acupuncture, acupressure, massage, physical therapy, relaxation, meditation and humor, may help as well.
Q3. What is the best treatment option for late stage kidney cancer?
As we mentioned in question 1, no two people are exactly alike, treatment and responses to treatment vary greatly.
After the cancer is found and staged, your doctor will discuss your treatment options with you. It is important to take time and think about your possible choices. The factors need to be considered such as the type of kidney cancer (mostly clear cell RCC), stage (stage4, metastasis in more than 1 regional lymph node or distant metastasis) and tumor size and location, age and general health state.
Your treatment options may include surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, targeted cancer therapy, biologic therapy, hormone therapy or some combinations of these.
A surgery should be considered first, it is the initial treatment commonly used in with renal cell carcinoma patients. The surgery that either removes parts of the kidney, or the entire kidney is called nephrectomy. However, numbers of patients with advanced kidney cancer cannot have surgery, if you cannot have surgery, you may benefit from other local treatments such as cryoablation, radiofrequency ablation, or arterial embolization. Otherwise, treatment with one of the targeted therapies would probably be the first option. Sunitinib (Sutent), sorafenib (Nexavar), everolimus (Affinitor), temsirolimus (Torisel), and bevacizumab (Avastin) are some of the latest targeted cancer drugs, and they are FDA approved.
Chemotherapy is not a standard treatment for the commonest type of kidney cancer - renal cell carcinoma. It is not as good at treating kidney cancer as some other treatments such as biological treatments. As well as radiation therapy, but radiation can be a neoadjuvant treatment to shrink tumour before surgery.
In considering your treatment options it is often a good idea to seek a second opinion, if possible.
Q4. What should I know about diet and nutrition if I have kidney cancer?
People who were diagnosed kidney cancer should receive specialized nutritional advice from doctor or a trained professional.
There are a few principles you need to follow:
If you smoke, you really should try to stop. Smoking has been linked to many cancers, including kidney cancer. As well as alcoholic drink, heavy drinking will cause kidney damage eventually.
A high protein diet has been linked to kidney disease, including cancer, most protein-rich foods are also rich in animal fats, eating a diet lower in protein may help you to maintain a healthy weight too. To eat more healthily, try to increase your intake of fresh fruit and vegetables and not eat so much protein. Avoid any foods with high purine, high fat, such as pork liver. Avoid Processed Meats.
Try to cut down on the amount of salt you add to your food. A high salt intake puts a strain on the kidneys (it is not good for your heart either).
Do not eat only one or few kinds of food you particularly like. Eat various foods every meal.
Do not take supplements unless your doctor asks you to. In fact, with kidney cancer, high-dose supplements could do more harm than good.
The recommendations in this publication can also reduce the risk of other chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.
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