Kidney Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment

In its beginning stages, kidney cancer usually causes no symptoms. For this reason, when symptoms occur, it is important to contact your doctor immediately. Blood in the urine, constant back pain, weight loss, fatigue and fever are usual symptoms of kidney cancer.

In order to properly diagnose kidney cancer, your doctor may run blood and urine tests or imaging tests, to visualize the abnormality. Biopsies may also be used to test the cells of the kidney for cancer themselves, but are often not needed. There are a wide range of treatments used for kidney cancer. One surgical option is nephrectomy, in which the kidney is removed, along with the adjacent tissues. Another surgery is called partial nephrectomy. This procedure involves the removal of only the affected area of the kidney, not the entire kidney. Surgery is traditionally done through a large skin incision. The Jackson Clinic currently offers minimally invasive surgery (laparoscopic/robotic) for kidney removal or partial removal utilizing the DaVinci® Surgical Robot.

If surgery is not a feasible treatment option, there are other methods which attack the cancer in an attempt to keep it from growing or to kill it altogether. Cryoablation involves the use of a special needle, armed with gas to freeze the cancer cells. Another procedure, radiofrequency ablation, involves a similar process to cryoablation, but uses electric current to burn the cancer cells, instead of freeze them. Other treatments include immunotherapy, targeted therapy and, occasionally, chemotherapy, although these are reserved for patients whose tumor has spread to other organs.

The Jackson Clinic Urologists offer services to patients all over West Tennessee and throughout the Mid-South including Paducah, Jonesboro, Memphis and Tupelo. Urology services are offered at the West Forest location.

To request an appointment, call 731.422.0213 or submit your request online.