Many people think that “cancer equals death. In fact, at least in the case of kidney cancer, this is not true.
- First, early-stage kidney cancer rarely causes death, and most patients do not die from kidney cancer but from other systemic diseases, such as heart disease and cerebrovascular accidents.
- Only in the advanced stage of the disease, patients lose their vitality gradually, feel very tired, experience poor appetite or are unable to eat because the body is depleted of nutrients and gradually loses weight due to the extensive invasion of the tumor.
- Patients in the advanced stage also develop acute symptoms such as blood clots or thrombosis in the lungs, seizures, and fatal bacterial, fungal, or viral infections.
While it is inevitable that advanced cancer will eventually lead to death, patients’ suffering can be minimized and their lives prolonged through a variety of palliative care options.
The survival prognosis for kidney cancer is relatively good compared to other cancers (e.g., lung, liver, stomach, etc.), with recent statistics from the United States showing a 5-year survival rate of 74.5% for patients with kidney cancer and renal pelvis cancer. Moreover, although the incidence of kidney cancer is on a growing trend, the mortality rate has decreased. There is no survey statistics on the survival rate of kidney cancer in China, but urologists are generally optimistic about the survival rate of kidney cancer, especially for early stage kidney cancer patients, most of whom can achieve long-term survival and be cured after surgical treatment.