Why Are Sickle Cell Patients Predisposed to Renal Medullary Carcinoma?
More Programs and Publications Featuring Dr. Kimryn Ratthmell
In this program:
What can predispose sickle cell patients to renal medullary carcinoma (RMC)? Watch as expert Dr. Kimryn Rathmell from Vanderbilt University Medical Center shares situations that can predispose those with sickle cell to RMC and symptoms that can signal RMC.
Transcript
Dr. Kimryn Rathmell:
We don't have full information here, but research that has recently been coming out looks at why does sickle cell predispose here, and it looks like there is a clear linkage at least to events that are damaging to the kidney. For example, episodes where someone has some severe dehydration or an injury or insult to the kidney because of some other massive infection, for example, that that stress on the kidney may be enough to at least push those cells toward a cancer. Those events that happen that stress the kidney could happen even in infancy with a neonate, for example, the preterm infant might have an event that sets them up for some time down the future, but we know that we can...to the extent we can help people preserve kidney function and not have episodes where their kidneys are so stressed is staying well-hydrated and being on top of a serious illness that can cause kidneys to be stressed. So that's what we think we can do to try to prevent this from happening.
In terms of knowing symptoms, blood in the urine is going to be number one, pain is going to be number two, we really want to catch something like this while we're still in the kidney, we have two kidneys, so we can send surgeons and they can take one out. This cancer spreads very fast, we don't really know what the timeline is between makes the cancer and spreads, but it's probably a time that we measure in months, it's probably pretty short, so you need to catch it as fast as you can. The other symptoms are going to indicate that it's already out of the bag, there are going to be symptoms like weight loss, fatigue, feeling other symptoms of cancer that spread, for example, to the lungs or to the brain. That happens a lot. Unfortunately, the majority of patients present with disease that's already outside the kidney, so I hate to list those as symptoms, but they unfortunately are often the symptoms that bring someone to attention.
The information on Diverse Health Hub is provided for educational purposes only, and is in no way intended to diagnose, cure, or treat any medical or other condition. Always seek the expert advice of your healthcare team. To learn more about privacy, read our Privacy Policy.
