Managing renal cell carcinoma: the nurse's role

Diagnosing renal cell carcinoma (RCC) can be difficult. Symptoms include a palpable mass in the abdomen, haematuria and hydronephrosis, but diagnosis can be delayed because of symptom similarities with other conditions, and often occurs incidentally during radiographic imaging for other complaints. This aside, more than 6600 people are diagnosed with kidney cancer annually in the UK (Patient UK, 2011). Although numerous improvements and greater use of screening measures have occurred, screening for this disease is limited to those patients identified as having a known genetic lineage linked to RCC (Pirass and Dahlstrom, 2010).