What are kidney cancer symptoms and signs?
Kidney cancer rarely causes signs or symptoms in its early stages,but larger ones might. Some kidney cancer signs and symptoms may include:
The most common symptoms of mid- to advanced-stage kidney cancer are:
Less common symptoms of kidney cancer include:
Most often, these symptoms do not mean cancer. An infection, a cyst, or another problem like prostate cancer or kidney stones also can cause the same symptoms. A person with any of these symptoms should consult a doctor so that any problem can be diagnosed and treated as early as possible.
The most common symptoms of mid- to advanced-stage kidney cancer are:
- blood in your urine – the amount of blood is usually high enough to change the colour of your urine to a reddish or dark brown colour. This is the most common symptom of kidney cancer.Doctors call this haematuria.About half of the people diagnosed with kidney cancer will have this symptom when they first go to the doctor.
- a constant pain below your ribs
- a lump in your abdomen (stomach)- If you feel a lump or swelling in the area of your kidneys,you need to go straight to your doctor.Most kidney cancers are too small for you or a doctor to feel.But it is possible to do an ultrasound scan of the kidneys to check for cancer.There is information about scans in the diagnosing kidney cancer section.
- However, in around half of all cases the cancer causes no symptoms and is only detected during a routine ultrasound scan.
Less common symptoms of kidney cancer include:
- unexplained weight loss
- a high temperature of 38C (100.4F) or above
- night sweats
- a general sense of feeling unwell
- swelling of the veins in the testicles (in men)
- fatigue or anaemia
- loss of appetite
- high blood pressure
- Tumor calcification on x-ray
- High calcium in blood
- High blood counts
- Fever that is not caused by an infection and that doesn't go away after a few weeks
Most often, these symptoms do not mean cancer. An infection, a cyst, or another problem like prostate cancer or kidney stones also can cause the same symptoms. A person with any of these symptoms should consult a doctor so that any problem can be diagnosed and treated as early as possible.