The kidneys are organs in the body that play an important role in keeping people healthy. The kidneys are a pair of organs found on either side of the backbone. The kidneys of an adult are approximately five inches long and about three inches wide and are shaped like a kidney bean. The kidneys function primarily as filters for the blood. The blood enters the kidney through the renal artery and travels through the kidney into small structures called Neophron. The neophron clean the blood by filtering out excess waste and fluid. The clean blood exits the kidney through the renal vein. The excess waste and fluid products exit the kidney through the ureter, circulate into the bladder and are excreted from the body as urine. This process continues 24 hours a day seven days a week so the total blood supply for the body is being filtered constantly. Some of the kidneys functions consist of removing waste products from your body through the urine, keeping the fluids balanced in your body, balancing the body's chemicals and releasing hormones that are important in stabilizing blood pressure and forming red blood cells. .
The kidneys" functions are critical to sustain life. There are many different diseases of the kidney. I've chosen renal cell cancer as my first topic. Renal cell cancer is a disease in which cancer cells are located in certain tissues of the kidney. This is not a common kind of cancer. It occurs more often in men than in women. You should see a doctor if you have more than one of the following symptoms: a lump in the abdomen, blood in the urine, a pain in your side that will not go away, loss of appetite or anemia. .
If renal cell cancer has been located, tests will be ordered to find out if the cancer has .
spread to any other areas of the body. This is called staging. In order to seek treatment the .
doctor needs to know what stage the disease is in.