Serious Warning Signs Of Kidney Cancer

Fatigue

All cancers, including kidney cancer, are known to produce fatigue because of the general effects that malignancy alone has on the healthy cells of the body. Nutrients from the food an individual consumes are absorbed and packaged up so they can be delivered to cells around the body. The nutrients that arrive in the cell are used in a series of complex chemical transformations to produce a form of energy that can be used by the cell called ATP. That ATP is used to fuel the differentiated and respective functions of the cell. The cell can perform without adequate ATP for a short period but will begin to shut down at a certain point. Although cancerous cells serve no beneficial function in the human body, they still require nutrients to produce their source of energy. Nutrients consumed by an affected individual are distributed to healthy and malignant cells around the body, allowing the cancerous cells to take up a significant portion of them. Fewer nutrients are left to go around to healthy cells, causing a shortage of ATP. The brain detects this and redistributes nutrients to cells that are vital for survival instead of those of other non-vital tissues. The lack of ATP overall and the weakness caused by redistribution causes a kidney cancer patient to feel very fatigued.

Unusual Weight Loss

Unusual weight loss is a common symptom of various types of cancer, including kidney cancer. A loss of total body mass occurs in an individual when their energy balance shifts from neutral or positive to negative. Energy balance is a term used to describe a ratio that compares the number of calories an individual burns to the number of calories they take in. A total increase in body mass occurs when an individual takes in a greater number of calories than their body is burning, and a total decrease in body mass occurs when they take in fewer calories than what their body is using. Healthy cells require calories and glucose to carry out their differentiated functions and to produce usable cellular energy. Cancerous cells in the body also require glucose and calories to carry out their functions. Cancerous cells use calories and glucose at a much faster rate than healthy cells do because they are growing and duplicating rapidly. Weight loss occurs because the growing malignant cells are using up more calories than the individual is taking in.