Kidney Cancer Screening

Screening for the disease in average-risk people also has not been found to reduce mortality and could lead to unnecessary medical procedures and emotional distress. As such, there are currently no kidney cancer screening guidelines for the general population. However, kidney cancer screening with imaging tests is encouraged in certain patients who are at high risk for the disease.

People at high risk of developing renal cancer should talk to their urologist about the benefits and risks of being screened with regular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) scans to check for signs of cancer. Those at high risk include people who have been diagnosed with certain inherited genetic syndromes, including:

• Birt-Hogg-Dube syndrome
• Cowden syndrome
• Familial renal cancer
• Hereditary leiomyoma renal cell carcinoma
• Hereditary papillary renal cell carcinoma
• Tuberous sclerosis
• Von Hippel-Lindau disease

There are no specified kidney cancer screening guidelines for people at high risk for the disease. Rather, such individuals should work with their primary care physician or urologist to determine how often they should have imaging tests done to check for cancer.

Early-stage renal cancer does not typically cause symptoms. Anyone experiencing the following kidney cancer symptoms should talk to their doctor right away.

• Blood in the urine
• Low back pain on one side of the body
• A lump in the side or lower back
• Fatigue
• Unintentional weight loss
• Poor appetite or feeling full quickly
• Fever that doesn’t resolve
• Anemia

These symptoms can be caused by a variety of conditions. For example, blood in the urine is common with urinary tract infections and kidney stones. The vast majority of people who experience these symptoms do not have renal cancer. Still, it’s important to seek a diagnosis right away. The sooner kidney cancer is diagnosed, the better your prognosis will be.

Researchers at Winship are currently working to identify cancer biomarkers that could result in the ability to detect kidney cancer using a urine- or blood-based test. Once developed, such a test could be used to detect renal cancer in high-risk individuals at earlier stages.