August 1, 2014 – : Kidney Nodules

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Anchor lead:  if you’ve been told you have a lesion in your kidney, what should you do? Elizabeth Tracey reports

Incidentaloma is medical slang for masses, lesions or areas of concern found when someone undergoes CT scanning for another reason, and one common place to find them is in the kidney.  Kenneth Pienta, a urologist and researcher at Johns Hopkins, says studies are underway now to assess what should be done about them.

Pienta: We’re seeing an explosion in these small kidney nodules of unknown significance.  So the kneejerk thing is you’ve got kidney cancer, get it out.  But how do you know that kidney cancer was ever going to cause you trouble? This is becoming a critical issue for the urologists who do kidneys because they literally couldn’t take out all of these lesions they’re finding.  So there are multiple studies starting to just follow those people.   :30

Pienta says these studies keep a close eye on kidney nodules, especially their rate of growth, so if your urologist tells you that’s the plan, you can feel confident you’re receiving good care.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.