[Sedimentation rate and renal cancer]

This paper is based on two articles published in 1996 in Journal of Internal Medicine. One is an evaluation of the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) measured in 3910 subjectively healthy Norwegians of both sexes, with an age range of 20 to 90 years. The authors underline the difference between a population-based and a subject-based upper ESR reference level, and the benefit of knowing each single healthy person's subject-based ESR level. The other article shows that, in 70% of a sample of 236 randomly selected patients with renal cell carcinoma, a diagnosis could have been indicated several years before clinical symptoms or signs became apparent. Therefore, the ESR might be a predictive test for many such cancer cases. This type of cancer has a good prognosis when treated surgically at an early stage. In Norway, 432 new cases occurred in 1993, 264 in men and 168 in women. If our observations are generally applicable, and proper attention had been paid to a slowly increasing ESR value over time, about 300 of these cases could have been operated on much earlier. It is suggested that physicians and public might both benefit from this knowledge.