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Nephrology

Kidneys serve many vital functions, but their main job is to clean the blood and filter waste and remove excess fluid from your body. When your kidneys aren’t working properly, you need to see a nephrologist, who will help you understand how your kidneys work and what they can do to keep them healthy.

Diabetes and hypertension are the leading causes of kidney failure. If you have either of these conditions, part of your health assessment should be to check your kidney function. As nephrologists, we want to be proactive as to how your kidneys are being affected. Monitoring kidney function can prevent this condition from getting worse or, at the least, slow it down. Recommended dietary and lifestyle changes are a large part of keeping your kidneys as healthy as possible when you have these other conditions.

Learn how it happens and how it's treated.

Understanding kidney cancer

Kidney cancer develops when abnormal cells form in the kidney and start reproducing quickly. These abnormal cells eventually form a mass, or tumor, that grows into and destroys healthy kidney tissue.

Cancer that starts in the kidneys may also invade nearby organs, such as the liver, colon or pancreas. Cells sometimes break away from the original tumor and spread to farther parts of the body, usually the bones or lungs.

Types of kidney cancer

There are several types of kidney cancer, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS).

Renal cell carcinoma is the most common type. About 90% of all kidney cancers are renal cell carcinomas.

Transitional cell carcinoma occurs in the kidney area that leads to the bladder.

Wilms tumor is a kidney cancer that develops in children.

Renal sarcoma is a rare form of kidney cancer that starts in the kidney's blood vessels or connective tissue.

Symptoms

Kidney cancer is often found when symptoms develop. The symptoms can include:

  • Blood in the urine.
  • Pain in the side or lower back.
  • A lump or mass in the side or abdomen.
  • Fatigue.
  • Sudden weight loss for no apparent reason.
  • Fever.
  • Anemia.

These symptoms could be caused by a less serious condition, but they're worth checking out. Early treatment is always best.

Risk factors

The cause of kidney cancer remains unknown, but a few risk factors have been identified. According to the ACS, the National Cancer Institute and the National Kidney Foundation, risk factors may include:

  • Smoking cigarettes.
  • Advanced kidney disease, especially if it requires dialysis, a treatment that removes wastes from the blood. People need dialysis when their kidneys don't function well enough to do this work.
  • Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) syndrome. This rare disease runs in families.
  • Exposure to asbestos, cadmium, trichloroethylene or certain other chemicals at work.
  • Family history of kidney cancer.
  • High blood pressure.
  • Obesity.
  • Gender. Men get this cancer more often than women.
  • Race. Black people are slightly more likely than white people to develop kidney cancer.

Treatment

Surgery is the most common treatment for kidney cancer. This may involve removing part or all of the kidney and sometimes nearby tissues and glands. Other treatment options include:

  • Arterial embolization, which means cutting off the blood supply to the tumor by blocking the artery that leads to the kidney.
  • Chemotherapy, which means using medicines to destroy or damage cancer cells.
  • Radiation therapy, which means using high-energy rays to destroy cancer cells.
  • Immunotherapy, which means using medicines that boost the immune system's ability to identify and destroy cancer cells.
  • Targeted therapies or medicines that target specific parts of cancer cells or specific steps in the process of tumor growth.
  • Pain relievers to ease the symptoms of advanced cancer.

Reviewed 3/20/2023

Sources

Conditions we treat

Some of the kidney conditions we treat include:

  • Chronic kidney diseases, including diabetic kidney disease, lupus and other autoimmune diseases
  • Acute kidney disorders
  • Anemia of kidney diseases
  • Blood or protein leakage in urine
  • Continuous renal replacement
  • Electrolyte and acid base disorder
  • Hemodialysis
  • Hypertension
  • Kidney stone prevention
  • Peritoneal dialysis
  • Plasma exchange
  • Polycystic kidney disease

Many kidney problems can be treated with medicine and lifestyle changes.

Expert dialysis team

When your kidneys are no longer able to keep your body healthy, you must replace your kidney function with dialysis. This procedure artificially replaces many functions performed by normal kidneys.

The Mercyhealth Dialysis Center combines a comfortable atmosphere with state-of-the-art medical technology. Our caring and compassionate dialysis team includes board certified nephrologists; specially trained registered nurses; certified hemodialysis technicians; a dietitian who will help you understand any dietary changes you need to make; and a social worker to help with issues like transportation, insurance, medications and more.

We offer in-center hemodialysis and at-home peritoneal dialysis. When you choose us, you can rest assured knowing everyone is working to offer you the best kidney care possible.

New dialysis center coming soon

Construction on a new 12,000-square-foot dialysis and nephrology center is currently underway. It will include new, state-of-the-art equipment and twice the number of treatment chairs as are currently available. The new center is expected to open in summer of 2023.

Make an appointment

To make an appointment or find a nephrologist, call 888.396.3729.