How is kidney cancer diagnosed and assessed?
To confirm the diagnosis
An ultrasound scan of the kidney can usually detect a kidney cancer. This is often one of the first tests done if your doctor suspects that you may have kidney cancer. (An ultrasound scan is a safe and painless test which uses sound waves to create images of organs and structures inside your body. See separate leaflet for more details of this test.)
Intravenous urography is a special x-ray test which is sometimes used to detect a kidney cancer. The urinary tract does not show up well on ordinary x-ray pictures. However, with intravenous urography a contrast dye is injected into a vein ('intravenous' injection). The dye travels in the bloodstream, concentrates in the kidneys, and is passed out into the ureters with urine made by the kidneys. The dye blocks x-rays so the structure of the kidneys, ureters and bladder shows up clearly as white on x-ray pictures. (See separate leaflet for more details of this test.)
Assessing the extent and spread
If you are found to have a kidney cancer then further tests may be advised to assess if the cancer has spread. For example, a CT scan, an MRI scan, a chest x-ray, blood tests, or other tests. (There are separate leaflets which describe each of these tests in more detail.) This assessment is called 'staging' of the cancer. The aim of staging is to find out:
- How much the tumour in the kidney has grown, and whether it has grown to the edge, or through the outer part of the kidney.
- Whether the cancer has spread to local lymph glands (nodes).
- Whether the cancer has spread to other areas of the body (metastasised).
Finding out the stage of the cancer helps doctors to advise on the best treatment options. It also gives a reasonable indication of outlook (prognosis). See separate leaflet called 'Cancer Staging and Grading' for details.
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