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Dovilė, 26, became her first summer painting: the sunny shoreline and the waves of the sea fluttering easily towards her. An optimistic young woman says she can breathe better now because she was treated for a cold for kidney cancer a few months ago.
“Four tumors were removed from my kidney during the operation. Clearly, part of the kidney was damaged because, just like it freezes, it freezes everywhere. I lost part of my kidney, but I have another kidney, ”says Dovilė.
Radiologist Mantas Trakymas, a physician at the National Cancer Institute, shows not only a kidney tumor, but also an ice bubble that forms when cancer freezes. The main goal of the doctor is to destroy the tumor and about an inch around it. Over the past year, the cancer institute, according to the doctor, has performed just over twenty of those cold treatment procedures: cryoblution. According to the radiologist, these procedures are performed in complex patients under general anesthesia.
“This is a way that you insert special needles into the tumor and a cold forms at the end of those needles, freezing the tissues around it to -40 degrees and thereby achieving cell destruction,” says M. Trakymas.
And in Lithuania, about 700 people are diagnosed with kidney cancer each year. They are usually older people, but there are also very young people of working age. And many of them do not even know at first that they have the disease, because kidney cancer, especially in the early stages, is asymptomatic.
More than half of people are diagnosed with the disease at random during a preventive screening. It is true that, according to Birutė Brasiūnienė, head of the Department of Chemotherapy at the National Cancer Institute, this year patients whose condition is serious are turning to doctors due to a coronavirus pandemic.
“The pandemic has really eroded the schedules of patients who have to come in for a timely checkup. And of course we have more backlogged cases. Also, we chemotherapists who work with advanced kidney cancer actually look at patients more. serious ”, says B. Brasiūnienė.
Research shows that smoking, obesity, and long-term drug use increase the risk of kidney cancer. According to doctors, those who have already been diagnosed with diabetes, chronic kidney failure and high blood pressure are also more likely to contract the disease.
The Chernobyl accident is believed to have also contributed to the high morbidity, with Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and the Czech Republic leading the number of cases. For this reason, doctors advise that you should have kidney cancer screenings at least once a year.
“If you do an ultrasound with your GP at least once a year, it will definitely detect developing kidney cancer. Other symptoms: there is already bleeding, blood with urine, pain already, feel a formation on the side. It is already a late diagnosis, ”says Albertas Ulys, head of the department of oncourology.
A patient survey conducted by the International Kidney Cancer Coalition found that up to 96 percent of people with cancer experience anxiety and fear. About half of those surveyed said they did not discuss their problems with family and friends. And, according to psychologists, mental health is essential for a person to be able to endure treatment and recover faster.
“Group therapy is a space where people talk about difficult things and laugh together, share funny things. And this is when in life – a lot of all kinds of feelings. We integrate dance, movement therapy, music therapy”, says Sandra Birbilaitė, clinical psychologist.
Such artistic activities do not cure the disease itself, but help patients to recover faster, overcome anxiety and fear, as well as accept life’s challenges more easily.
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