Kidney cancer symptoms

Kidney cancer symptoms and Signs of kidney cancer

Many kidney cancers are found incidentally, when a person has an x-ray or ultrasound test for other reasons.

People with kidney cancer may experience the following symptoms. Sometimes, people with kidney cancer do not show any of these symptoms. Often, many symptoms of cancer, such as blood in the urine, can also signal other conditions. In its earliest stages, kidney cancer causes no pain. Therefore, symptoms of the disease usually appear when the tumor is quite large and begins to affect nearby organs. If you are concerned about a symptom on this list, please talk with your doctor.

Remember that the symptoms below may occur with other conditions and don’t necessarily indicate the presence of kidney cancer.

Symptoms of kidney cancer may include:

• Hematuria (blood in the urine)


• Pain or pressure in the side or back


• A mass or lump in the side or back


• Swelling of the ankles and legs


• High blood pressure, or anemia (low red blood cell count)


• Fatigue


• Loss of appetite


• Unexplained weight loss


• Recurrent fevers (not from cold, flu, or other infections)


• In a man, a rapid development of a varicocele (a cluster of enlarged veins) around the testicle

Routine screening tests to detect early kidney cancer are not available. Doctors may suggest that people at high risk for the disease undergo imaging tests to look inside the body. In patients with a family history of kidney cancer, CT scans will sometimes be used to search for early-stage kidney cancer. However, CT scans have never been shown to be a useful screening tool for kidney cancer in the general community.