Kidney Cancer Awareness Month

I'm going to post a list of awareness weeks, months, and days in a little bit, but I wanted to spot light one happening right now, and that is that March is Kidney Cancer Awareness month. The color is orange.

Kidney cancer is considered quite rare in children, but there are three main types. From Urology Facts, here they are:

  • Wilms' tumor (also known as nephroblastoma) - about 6 to 7 of every 100 childhood cancers in the U.S.
  • Congenital Mesoblastic Nephroma - mostly found during the first 3 months of life
  • Renal Cell Cancer in the renal tubules - mostly found in older children

They consider Wilms' tumor rare, and maybe it is in the grand scheme of things, but 5-7% of all childhood cancers doesn't feel small to me. That's about 500 kids a year. 500 families, mostly of children under the age of 5, impacted annually. And that's only new cases. Wilms' tumor is also more likely between siblings, so families could end up with multiple children all affected by a Wilms' tumor. Wilms' tumors account for 90% of kidney cancer in children (source).

Kidney cancer often starts as a lump in the abdomen (where the kidneys are) and can also include blood in the urine and pain. The overall survival rate of kidney cancer in children with both surgery and chemotherapy is about 90%.



 

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