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Kidney Cancer

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The kidneys are a "matched" pair of organs found on either side of the backbone. The kidneys of an adult are about 5 inches long and 3 inches wide and are shaped like a kidney bean. Inside each kidney are tiny tubules that filter and clean the blood, taking out waste products, and making urine. The urine made by the kidneys passes through a tube called a ureter into the bladder where it is held until it is passed from the body. Renal cell cancer is a cancer of the lining of the tubules in the kidney.

The organs and tissues of the body are made up of tiny building blocks. These building blocks are called cells. Cancer is a disease of these cells. For some reason, the cancerous cells lose control of cell division and will continue to divide, developing into a lump which is also known as a tumor. There are two types of tumors: benign and malignant. In benign tumors, the cells do not spread and they are not cancerous. Malignant tumors consist of cancer cells which have the ability to spread from the original site. In all, there are more than 200 different kinds of cancer. With 25% of all fatalities, cancer is the second most common cause of death in the world. The lifetime probability of being diagnosed with cancer is close to 44% for men and 38% for women. There are 8.1 million initial diagnoses of cancer every year.

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