Kidney Cancer

What Can Cause Kidney Cancer?

Doctors haven’t found any single cause for kidney cancer. However, several factors increase a patient’s risk of getting the disease. They include:

• Being overweight: Losing weight doesn’t only improve heart health. It also reduces a patient’s chance of having kidney cancer.
• A family history of kidney cancer: People with close family members who have had kidney cancer are at increased risk themselves.
• High blood pressure: Patients with high blood pressure also have a greater risk of developing kidney cancer.
• A history of pelvic radiation therapy: Although women have only half the risk men have of developing malignancies in their kidneys, that doesn’t necessarily hold true if they have had radiation therapy for previous cancers in their reproductive organs.
• Certain demographic factors: People between 65-74 years old, who are male, or are of Native American or African American ancestry have an increased risk of having kidney cancer.
• Being a smoker: People who are smokers have a heightened risk of contracting kidney cancer. Since the longer a patient smokes, the greater their risk, it’s never too late to stop smoking.
• Long-term dialysis treatments: Patients who have undergone dialysis for other kidney ailments are at a higher risk of having kidney cancer.
• Having VHL (Von Hippel-Lindau disease): People with this genetic condition have a greater risk of kidney cancer, as well as benign tumors in the blood vessels of the brain and eyes.
• Having tuberous sclerosis complex: This disease causes tumors to form in various organs, including the kidneys.

What Types of Kidney Cancer Can Occur?

Kidney cancer takes various forms, from the most common to the rarest. They include:

• Renal cell carcinomas (RCCs): The most common type of kidney cancer, renal cell carcinomas start as a tumor in the lining of a single kidney’s tubules. Eventually, they affect both kidneys.
• Transitional cell cancer: This fairly rare type of kidney malignancy only occurs in 6%-7% of all cases of kidney cancer. These tumors develop at the point where the ureter connects to the body of the kidney.
• Wilms’ tumor: This rare malignancy is the most common kind of kidney cancer in children. Wilms tumors represent only about 5% of all kidney malignancies.
• Renal sarcomas: These extremely rare cancers occur in only 1% of all kidney malignancies. Renal sarcomas develop in the kidneys’ connective tissues and will spread into nearby tissues if they go untreated.

What Are the Symptoms of Kidney Cancer?

In its early stages, kidney cancer often goes unnoticed, making it difficult to detect early in its progress. As it grows, symptoms start to appear. These symptoms can include:

• Blood in the urine
• A noticeable lump in the kidney area
• Pain in the flanks
• Exhaustion that doesn’t go away with regular sleep
• Loss of appetite
• Unexplained weight loss
• Low-grade fevers with no apparent cause
• Pain in the bones
• High blood pressure
• High blood calcium levels
• Anemia

How Do Doctors Diagnose Kidney Cancer?

Doctors use several tests to diagnose kidney cancer and determine if it has metastasized into other parts of the body. These tests might include:

• Urinalysis: Since blood in the urine is one of the main indicators of kidney cancer, doctors usually test a patient’s urine sample for the presence of blood if they suspect that they might have kidney cancer.
• Blood tests: Doctors usually test a patient’s blood for the presence of specific electrolytes, its creatinine level (which can assess impaired kidney function), and for anemia.
• Ultrasound: Since tumors differ in density from healthy kidney tissues, ultrasound exams give doctors a non-invasive way to detect whether any tumors are present, as well as to assess their size and shape.
• CT scan: Like an X-ray, a CT scan takes pictures of the inside of a person’s body. However, unlike X-rays, CT scans can give doctors a close-up view of individual organs, creating highly vivid images of the kidney in “slices.” Doctors often administer contrast dye intravenously during the test to ensure accuracy.
• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): Like CT scans, MRIs create accurate images of internal organs. However, MRIs use radio waves and magnetic energy to create the computer-generated images.
• Needle biopsy: Doctors often test for the presence of kidney cancer cells by inserting a needle into the tumor, removing a tiny amount of tissue, and analyzing the tissue under a microscope.

What Are the Stages of Kidney Cancer?

Using imaging tests, doctors separate tumors into stages to best determine a patient’s treatment strategy and prognosis (likely outcome). In kidney cancer, those stages include:

• Stage I: Tumors at this stage are small, only 7 centimeters in diameter or less and are confined to the kidney.
• Stage II: Tumors have grown beyond 7 centimeters in diameter but have not expanded into nearby tissues or lymph nodes.
• Stage III: Tumors at this stage have spread into nearby major blood vessels or nearby tissues and lymph nodes.
• Stage IV: Stage IV tumors have spread into other parts of the body or into an adrenal gland (a small gland that lies atop the kidney).

How Can I Prevent Kidney Cancer?

While there are no guarantees when it comes to developing kidney cancer, maintaining a healthy lifestyle gives you the best defense against the disease. Avoiding (or quitting) smoking, maintaining a normal weight, and controlling high blood pressure are all great strategies for kidney cancer prevention.

In addition, a diet rich in fruits and vegetables has proven to lower the risk of kidney cancer. Avoiding exposure to trichloroethylene, a chemical used to manufacture refrigerants, degreasing solvents, commercial spot removers, and some cleaning products also reduces your risk.

What Natural Treatment Options Can Treat Kidney Cancer?

A wealth of alternative cancer treatments are available to treat kidney cancer. Whether you choose to combine traditional therapies with non-toxic treatment options or rely only on holistic medicine for your treatment, the Brio-Medical team can chart a custom course of treatment that conforms to your wishes and gives you the best chance for recovery.

These treatments might include the following therapies, all proven effective in fighting malignant kidney tumors:

Nutritional Therapy

Just as maintaining a healthy diet provides your body with nutrients that can help prevent kidney cancer, some of those nutrients can actually help in the healing process. Brio-Medical’s nutritional therapy program combines these superfoods into a diet that gives your body a chance to fight back against the disease.

One of those cancer-fighting foods is one of the oldest natural medicines – honey – as a 2013 medical literature review points out. As long as 8,000 years ago, physicians prescribed the sweet substance for a variety of maladies.

But as a 2011 kidney cancer study showed, honey can still be a potent weapon in the fight against kidney cancer. The study showed that the ancient remedy induces apoptosis (natural cell death) in renal cell carcinoma cells.

Quercetin IV Therapy

A nature-sourced pigment found in a broad range of foods, quercetin has a broad range of medical applications. One of those applications, a 2016 study showed, is its ability to suppress renal (kidney) cancer cell proliferation and induce early cell death in malignant kidney cells.

Since traditional therapies make little impact on the progress of advanced renal cancer but cause debilitating side effects, quercetin IV therapy is an excellent choice for those who want to go the natural route to treat their disease.

Curcumin IV Therapy

Curcumin is another plant-sourced compound that has proven effective in inhibiting the progression of kidney cancer, a 2022 study concluded. Derived from turmeric, a popular spice used in curry powder, curcumin gives patients a non-toxic alternative to chemotherapy or other traditional treatments.

Like quercetin, curcumin at high concentrations demonstrated potent cancer-killing properties, inducing cell death in renal cancer cells. Additionally, the study pointed out, curcumin targeted the cancer cells’ ability to migrate, making curcumin IV therapy a valuable tool in stopping the spread of the disease.

Vitamin C IV Therapy

Vitamin C is more than a cancer preventative. At high IV concentrations, as a 2006 study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal showed, this potent vitamin produced “unexpectedly long survival times” in patients with advanced cancer, including kidney cancer.

Combined with other natural therapies, such as whole-body hyperthermia, curcumin, and melatonin, vitamin C IV treatments provide renal cancer patients with a holistic alternative to toxic chemotherapy.

Natural Immunotherapy

Natural immunotherapy treatment harnesses the body’s own immune system to fight cancer. As a 2021 Dana-Farber Cancer Center report shows, immunotherapy has proven to improve survival rates in kidney cancer patients with a high risk of recurrence.

Using peptides, compounds that occur naturally in the human body, immunotherapy medications activate the immune system to attack cancer cells without harming normal kidney tissues, unlike chemotherapeutics.

Learn How Holistic Therapies Can Help You Fight Kidney Cancer

Holistic medicine offers kidney cancer patients hope through natural remedies that have been proven to stop the proliferation of cancer cells. For advanced cases for which chemotherapy is virtually ineffective, these integrative therapies provide patients with options that are deadly for cancer cells yet easy on normal ones.

Discover the difference a holistic approach to treating cancer makes. Schedule your free consultation with the Brio-Medical Cancer Center team today.

External references:

“Cancer Stat Facts: Kidney and Renal Pelvis Cancer.” National Cancer Institute, https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/kidrp.html. Accessed September 13, 2022.

“Kidney Cancer.” Cleveland Clinic, https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/9409-kidney-cancer-overview. Accessed September 11, 2022.

“Genetics of Renal Cell Carcinoma (PDQ®)–Health Professional Version.” National Cancer Institute, https://www.cancer.gov/types/kidney/hp/renal-cell-carcinoma-genetics. Accessed September 13, 2022

“Wilms' tumor.” Mayo Clinic, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/wilms-tumor/symptoms-causes/syc-20352655. Accessed September 13, 2022.

“Kidney cancer.” Mayo Clinic, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/kidney-cancer/symptoms-causes/syc-20352664. Accessed September 13, 2022.

“Trichloroethylene (TCE).” National Cancer Institute, https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/substances/trichloroethylene. Accessed September 13, 2022.

Eteraf-Oskouei, Tahereh, and Moslem Najafi. “Traditional and modern uses of natural honey in human diseases: a review.” Iranian Journal of basic medical sciences vol. 16,6 (2013): 731-42.

Samarghandian, Saeed, et al. “Honey induces apoptosis in renal cell carcinoma.” Pharmacognosy magazine vol. 7,25 (2011): 46-52. doi:10.4103/0973-1296.75901.

Han, Chengxian et al. “Quercetin Anti-Cancer Effect in Renal Cancer Through Regulating Survivin Expression and Caspase 3 Activity.” Med One. 2016; 1(1): 3 (2016). doi: 10.20900/mo.20160003.

Gao, Rui, et al. “Curcumin Inhibits the Proliferation of Renal Cancer 786-O Cells through MTOR Signaling Pathway and Its Mechanism.” Journal of healthcare engineering vol. 2022 1842389. 30 Mar. 2022, doi:10.1155/2022/1842389.

Padayatty, Sebastian J et al. “Intravenously administered vitamin C as cancer therapy: three cases.” CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne vol. 174,7 (2006): 937-42. doi:10.1503/cmaj.050346.

“Immunotherapy drug delays recurrence in kidney cancer patients.” Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, https://www.dana-farber.org/newsroom/news-releases/2021/immunotherapy-drug-delays-recurrence-in-kidney-cancer-patients/. Accessed September 14, 2022.