Renal cancer

Renal cancer is uncommon, but appears to be on the increase. This can be partially explained by the increased use of ultrasound. This disease is characterized by a lack of early warning signs, and diverse clinical manifestations, with the triad of haematuria, loin pain and a palpable abdominal mass seen in <10% of patients. Removal of the tumour by radical nephrectomy is the ‘gold standard’ treatment for local disease. Early results suggest that laparoscopic nephrectomy gives equal survival results to the open procedure. Up to 30% of patients present with metastatic disease and will survive a median of four months. von Hippel-Lindau disease is the commonest inherited type of renal malignancy and has an autosomal dominant inheritance.