Library · Neoplasm
Kidney cancer
Make it clearer
When people talk about kidney cancer, in the vast majority of cases they are talking about renal cell carcinoma. Between 80% and 85% of the tumors that start in the kidney itself are of that type, and they appear in the cortex, the outer layer of the organ.
The exact tissue it comes from has a name: the epithelium of the proximal renal tubule, that is, the lining of the first stretch of tubing that carries what the kidney has just filtered. It is as if the tumor got started right at the first bend in that plumbing. And there is one spot in the genome that comes up again and again: the short arm of chromosome 3, where the structural alterations of both forms of the disease, the sporadic and the hereditary, are concentrated. The genes involved are tumor suppressors, the ones that put on the brakes, or oncogenes, the ones that push.
Within renal cell carcinoma there are subtypes, and the most common one is clear cell, whose cytoplasm, the inside of the cell, is loaded with glycogen and fats.
In brief
Renal cell carcinoma starts in the renal cortex and accounts for 80% to 85% of primary renal neoplasms.
It arises from the epithelium of the proximal renal tubule; in both its sporadic and hereditary forms, the structural alterations occur on the short arm of chromosome 3, and the genes involved are tumor suppressors or oncogenes.
The clear cell subtype is the most common, and its cytoplasm is rich in glycogen and lipids.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingRenal Cell Cancer, StatPearlsPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
Updated