Experts join forces to uncover the “kidney cancer” disease

  In July this year, Ms. Hu, who lives in Kaifu District, Changsha, was admitted to the Department of Urology of our hospital. Ms. Hu has been having blood in her urine since September last year. In June this year, she was examined in a provincial hospital and found that the culprit of her hematuria was “kidney cancer”. To further confirm the diagnosis, she was admitted to our hospital.  After she was admitted to the hospital, she was shocked to find out that there was not only a huge mass as big as a ball in her right kidney, but also the right renal vein and inferior vena cava were filled with cancer embolus, which was more than 5 centimeters long. Kidney cancer is a malignant tumor originating from the urinary tubular epithelial system of the kidney parenchyma, also known as renal adenocarcinoma. Kidney cancer accounts for about 2% to 3% of adult malignant tumors, among which 3% to 7% are associated with cancerous thrombus in renal vein or inferior vena cava. According to the clinical stage, the patient is already in stage III, and some people have statistics that the 5-year survival rate of stage III is only 38%, which means that only 38 people out of 100 patients can live for more than 5 years.  This news was like a bolt from the blue for the patient’s father and her husband. Ms. Hu, who is only 27 years old this year, and her boyfriend were married only in April this year after a 10-year marathon relationship. The original plan was to have a little baby this year, but I didn’t expect that to be a foregone conclusion.  As the mortality rate of vena cava tumor removal is about 9%, complications such as hemorrhage, embolus dislodgement pulmonary embolism, intestinal injury, liver and kidney failure may occur during and after the operation, so the operation is extremely risky, which invariably adds tremendous pressure to the urology specialists. The Department of Urology made full preparation, and under the organization of Professor He Le Ye, the head of the department, a total of 2 intra-departmental consultations and 3 hospital-wide conferences were held. Experts from the medical department, transplantation department, vascular surgery department, cardiothoracic surgery department, anesthesia department, hemodialysis department, radiology department and operation room actively contributed their ideas and refined the assessment of surgical conditions, preoperative preparation, surgical steps and postoperative treatment.  After solid and meticulous preparation, the surgical team composed of Prof. He Le Ye and Prof. Ye Qi Qi performed a thrilling and complicated operation on July 23. Due to the large size of the kidney tumor and the rich vascularity of the surface; the mass caused compression on the normal kidney and lost the normal anatomical structure, making it very difficult to separate the tumor.  When the renal tumor and vena cava were completely exposed, the tumor and venous cancer thrombus were finally removed smoothly through the femoral vein-intrajugular vein autotransfusion technique under the assistance and guidance of Prof. Ye Qiqi, drawing on the autologous liver transplantation technique, which ensured the hemodynamic stability of the patient during the operation.  After the operation, Ms. Hu was placed in the ICU for close observation and returned to the general ward two days later. She is now recovering well.