Kidney cancer charity call for more accurate cancer tests
Kidney Cancer UK say there are no diagnosis tests currently available for GPs on kidney cancer
A kidney cancer charity are calling for more accurate tests to help catch the cancer sooner, as they say many face too long of a wait.
Kidney Cancer UK are telling us there are no diagnosis tests for kidney cancer and are calling for research to find easier ways to conclude a diagnosis earlier.
Mike Tunstall's had kidney cancer twice, receiving life-changing treatment in Southampton called cryoablation on his second round of cancer.
He says if he'd been able to have had the diagnosis earlier, he could've accessed this treatment when he first became ill.
Mr Tunstall said: "Obviously, the earlier caught, the better.
"If mine had been caught some years earlier, it may have led to just something like a partial nephrectomy or ablation, if that would've been an availability back then.
"But then obviously, once things had grown to that size, those things weren't available, they needed to be on a bigger scale as the whole kidney had to come out."
Kidney Cancer UK's General Manager, Andrew Greaves, also spoke to us and told us what they're calling for.
He said: "We need to get an accurate, reliable, but reasonably cheap test for patients.
"At the moment, in most cases, the clincher is really going for a CT scan or sometimes an MRI, and they're not cheap.
"I know it's probably asking for the moon, but a simple test that a GP can carry out to at least give them the confidence to say, right, this patient does need to be seen by a specialist."
He told us more about the sort of tests he'd like to see introduced.
Mr Greaves said: "Tests for the GP for kidney cancer, well there isn't anything.
"If you look at the equivalents, or one of the equivalents, which is prostate cancer, there is a test, there's a blood test.
"It's not absolutely conclusively accurate, but it's good enough and it can actually give positive results for other conditions other than cancer, but it's there, and it's a good basis on which GPs can refer.
"We don't have that in kidney cancer and it's very difficult.
"The researchers will tell us that it's very hard to find that equivalent for kidney cancer just because of the way it develops, I think."