Kidney cancer

For a lay person:

Kidney cancer is a cancer that starts in the kidney, most often renal cell carcinoma in adults. Smoking, obesity and high blood pressure raise the risk. It is often found by chance on a scan, but may cause blood in the urine or pain in the side.

For a trained medical person:

Renal cell carcinoma, most often clear-cell type associated with VHL gene loss, accounts for most adult kidney cancers. Diagnosis is by contrast CT or MRI, with biopsy in selected cases and staging imaging of chest and abdomen. Localised disease is treated with partial or radical nephrectomy or ablation, and advanced disease with immunotherapy and targeted agents.

In Chinese medicine:

Liu and Tseng's textbook differentiates this condition into these patterns: Damp-Heat Accumulating in Lower Jiao; Internal Obstruction of Blood Stasis; Spleen and Kidney Deficiency. Treatment follows the pattern a patient presents with, not the Western diagnosis alone.

When to get help: This needs specialist urology and oncology care; Chinese medicine is adjunctive at most. See a doctor for any blood in the urine; because kidney function may be reduced after treatment, avoid herbs that can harm the kidneys and check all herbs with your team.