Diagnosis of Kidney Cancer

If you have any signs/symptoms that indicate you may have kidney cancer, your doctor will want to take your comprehensive medical record to check the risk factors.

Kidney cancer cannot be diagnosed with a blood test. A complete blood count (CBC) and blood chemistry test, on the other hand, can reveal blood signs linked to kidney cancer. Consider the following scenario:

• There aren’t enough red blood cells. Anemia is the medical term for this condition. It’s found in a variety of cancers.
• There are too many red blood cells in the body. Erythrocytosis, or polycythemia, is the medical term for this condition. Erythropoietin is a hormone produced by some types of kidney cancer cells. This causes the bone marrow to produce an excessive number of blood cells.
• A high calcium level in the blood. This could indicate that cancer has spread to the bones.
• The presence of a high level of liver enzymes. This could indicate that cancer has progressed to the liver.

This urinalysis test can be done if your doctor suspects kidney disease. A urinalysis test can be used to detect blood in the urine. A small sample of your urine is tested in a lab to see if it contains blood for this test.

Computed tomography uses X-rays to make detailed cross-sectional images of your body. It can provide accurate information on the size, form, and location of a tumor. It is also useful for checking whether cancer has spread to neighboring lymph nodes and tissues outside the kidney.

MRI scans can be performed when a person cannot have CT contrast dye because they are allergic to it or have poor renal function. MRI scans may also be performed if there is a chance that cancer has spread to a major blood vessel in the abdomen.

Finally, they can be used to examine abnormal regions of the brain and spinal cord, which may be due to the spread of cancer.

Ultrasound will help find kidney mass and show whether it is solid or fluidic. Different ultrasound models may also help doctors differentiate between certain types of benign and malignant kidney tumors.

Angiography is an X-ray examination of the blood vessels. In a traditional angiogram, a contrast dye is injected into the kidney artery, and the dye describes the blood vessels. Radiographs can map blood vessels that feed a kidney tumor.

This test can help schedule surgery for certain patients. Angiography can also help diagnose kidney cancers as blood vessels generally have a special appearance with this test.

Today, angiography is performed through a computed tomography or MRI scan, instead of a separate X-ray test. This means that less contrast coloring is used because it could damage kidney function.

An x-ray can be taken after the diagnosis of kidney cancer to determine whether the cancer has spread to the lungs. Usually, a thoracic CT is performed because it can see abnormal areas better.

A bone scan can be used to determine if cancer has spread to your bones. A small quantity of low-level radioactive material is injected into the blood and accumulates primarily in abnormal areas of the bones.

It could be done if there are grounds to believe that cancer may have spread to bones, such as bone pain or increased calcium levels.

In contrast to most other types of cancer, biopsies are sometimes not required to find kidney tumors. In some cases, imaging tests may provide enough information for a surgeon to decide whether surgery is needed. The diagnosis is then confirmed when part of the kidney collected is examined in the laboratory.