Kidney Cancer
Kidney cancer is one of the few cancers increasing with incidence in the modern era. More common in men than women, this increase has been linked to aspects of modern society, including obesity, hypertension and smoking.
What are kidney tumours and how are they treated? Abhishek Reekhaye explains all here.
The mainstay of treatment for localized kidney cancers is surgical removal and in the vast majority of cases this should involve minimally invasive approaches i.e key hole or laparoscopic surgery or now robotic assisted surgery using the Da Vinci Robot System, rather than open surgery that can result in larger, painful and occasionally disfiguring wounds.
Recent times have seen an increase in small (less than 4cm) incidentally discovered tumours thanks to the greater number of scans (ultrasound or CT) performed for other reasons. The aim of surgery should be to remove the tumour with minimum impact upon overall kidney function. This is known as nephron sparing surgery, the nephron being the functioning unit of the kidney. Most often this means a partial nephrectomy (excision of only the tumour mass) although there are other ablative options to kill the tumour e.g cryoablation or freezing of the tumour.
Our consultants - Neil Barber, Manar Malki, Muddassar Hussain, Amr Emara and Abhishek Reekhaye - are experts in robotic kidney surgery and all work within the Frimley Renal Cancer Centre - a team of specialists delivering surgical solutions for kidney disorders.
Robotic kidney surgery reduces the risk of going to open surgery and allows for a more rapid recovery and precision of surgery.
Muddassar Hussain was interviewed by Sky News on the impact of robotic surgery for kidney treatment.
Our video collection here illustrates how robotic surgery works and our consultants will talk you through these animations to help you understand what surgery will involve.