The Link Between Kidney Cancer And Mesothelioma

The subject has been discussed over and over again and to some extent it has been abused by lawyers, health care professionals and internet- bloggers such as myself. I am talking about mesothelioma and other asbestos induced diseases, such as kidney cancer.

While I am not claiming to be an expert on the topic, I do believe I have a right to share with others my experience as a kidney cancer patient and breast cancer husband. In early March of 2009 my whole world fell apart. My wife got diagnosed with breast cancer. Within a matter of a few months thereafter, I received my kidney cancer diagnosis.

Blood in the urine is one of the most commonly seen symptoms of kidney cancer. I was working outside trying to fix our patio. That project required me to do a lot of tasks I am not really used to, such as dragging around stones, moving sand, etc. That's why I didn't think too much of the abdominal pain I encountered during that period, I thought I might be a little sore. But a few days after that something more significant happened. I urinated blood. This was not the slightly discolored urine that is normal after eating a red beets for instances. This was literally thick and dark red blood. Trying to be a tough guy - which in retrospect is the dumbest thing one can do - I simply ignored it. I was sure it will go away after a while.

And it went away, however, only to come back heavier after a few days. This time I also discharged clots of blood. That convinced me to take action so I made an appointment with an urologist to find out what was going on with me. The urologist strongly believed that I had kidney stones, because that made the most sense. So I was ordered for a CAT Scan to get a better understanding where the stones are located and how big they are. 

A week later he called me back to tell me that I did not have kidney stones but renal cell carcinoma, the cancer of the kidney. The odds were against me. Statistically, considering my age and my health condition, the chance of getting kidney cancer was less than 2%. But there was no doubt, a 7cm tumor had completely taken over my left kidney.

Kidney cancer treatment almost always follows the same protocol. Therefore, the next step was cystoscopy to find out whether there were any visible signs of kidney cancer outside the organ. During that procedure a stent got inserted in my ureter. The pain afterwards was excruciating.

In late November I, my left kidney was removed via a laparoscopic surgery. This procedure is called radical nephrectomy. When we got the pathology back, it turned out that I probably had my cancer for more than 15 years already. My oncologist and I discussed the potential causes of kidney cancer and when I told him that I was exposed to asbestos around that time he confirmed that this could indeed be the reason why I developed renal cell carcinoma. All asbestos induced diseases, mesothelioma, lung cancer and kidney cancer included, are known for not causing any symptoms for years or decades. I do remember the taste of the asbestos particles that I inhaled and ingested why I was helping out on a construction process. My job was to cut and trim asbestos cement sheets to get them ready for installation. Of course, I had no idea how dangerous asbestos exposure is and therefore I did not wear any kind of protection gear. For over a year I breathed in the carcinogenic asbestos fibers.

The video below is my actual CAT-Scan.

I turned out that I was lucky. Lucky, because I did not develop mesothelioma, but 'only' kidney cancer. The cancer was confined to the organ, which is the best case scenario. After the nephrectomy, I did not have to undergo any further kidney cancer treatments. Metastatic kidney cancer would have been much harder to treat and carried a less optimistic prognosis.

I hope that this article inspired you not to take any unusual signs or symptoms lightly. There might be more to it than you think. No, I don't say you should start to panic after a sneeze, but I'm sure you get my point. If I had waited any longer, the outcome of my cancer could have been vastly different. Go and see a qualified health care professional if you encounter anything out of the ordinary!

Lastly, I'd like to share that for now both my wife and I have not had any signs of cancer recurrence.