Kidney Cancer

Diagnosis

Physicians use several tests to determine the presence of kidney cancer and how far it has progressed. Mayo Clinic physicians obtain a medical history, conduct a physical examination, and look at the results of urine and blood tests. They may also order one or more of the following tests.

• Computer tomography (CT) scans create a computer-generated two-dimensional image of the kidney and surrounding tissue. CT scans include greater detail than traditional X-ray techniques.
• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) uses a magnetic field and radio waves to generate cross-sectional pictures of the body.
• Ultrasound uses a wandlike device (transducer) to send and receive high-frequency sound waves that are translated into images of internal organs.
• Intravenous pyelogram (IVP) or renal angiography procedures require injecting contrast dye into a vein to create a series of images of the kidneys, ureters, and bladder.
• Radionuclide imaging requires introducing radioisotopes into the bloodstream before kidney images are taken. Cancer cells appear on the images because they attract more radioisotopes than normal cells do.
• Fine-needle aspiration is a minimally invasive tissue sampling (biopsy) technique that can confirm the presence of kidney cancer.
• Cystoscopy can determine if cancer has spread to the bladder. To conduct this test, physicians insert a tube containing a light and lens into the bladder.

When Mayo Clinic physicians find kidney cancer, they want to determine whether it has spread to other parts of the body. To do that, they may order additional blood tests, a liver ultrasound, chest X-ray, or a bone scan. Doctors will also want to determine the health status of the other kidney. Unfortunately, biopsies of the tissue cannot reliably rule out cancer before surgery.