Can I Get Checked for Kidney Cancer Before I Have Symptoms?

For the average person, screening for kidney cancer is not usually recommended. Doctors cannot feel small kidney tumors during routine physical exams because your kidneys are deep inside your body. There is no urine or blood test available to test for kidney cancer. And tumors are often large before they cause pain or other symptoms. For these reasons, a doctor often finds kidney cancer during later stages. In fact, it is often found while a person is being checked for other reasons.

You may benefit from screening, however, if one of the following conditions applies to you.

• You have a strong family history of kidney cancer.

• You have von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease.

If one of these cases applies to you, talk with your doctor about screening. There are no standard guidelines for how often you should be screened if you are at risk. Your doctor will recommend a screening schedule based on your health and risk factors. Here are some ways your doctor may screen you for kidney cancer if you have one of the above risks.

• Computed tomography (CT) scan. This test uses X-rays to scan your abdomen to check for tumors.

• Ultrasound. This test uses high frequency sound waves to scan your abdomen for tumors.

If, during the screening process, the doctor detects something that might be cancer, he or she may take out a part of the lump. This is called a biopsy. For the type of biopsy used to diagnose kidney cancer, the doctor inserts a long, thin needle through the skin and into the kidney tumor. A sample of kidney tissue is removed through this needle. This procedure is called fine needle aspiration biopsy. A special doctor, called a pathologist, examines the sample under a microscope for signs of cancer. Kidney cancer has a distinct appearance on a CT scan, so a separate biopsy is usually not done before surgery.