The carcinoma prognosis depends greatly on the type and extent of the disease that is present. The location of origin of the cancer is one of the primary determinants of how the person is going to fare. Some carcinomas have a better prognosis than others. Also, the stage of the carcinoma is important. Those diseases that have spread further are likely going to have a worse prognosis than those that are localized. Localized disease can easily be eradicated with surgery or radiotherapy while widespread metastatic disease requires chemotherapy and carries a much higher risk of death.
One of the best cancers to have is basal cell carcinoma. This type of cancer is in the category of non melanoma skin cancers. It is a proliferation of the cells that line the base of the skin, therefore it is called ‘basal cell.’ These skin cancers develop in the sun exposed areas of the body and can develop a heaped up appearance with rounded edges. The usual treatment modality for these cancers is surgery. The dermatologist or other surgeon will cut or shave out the cancer and send it to the lab. If it is found to be cancerous and has extended beyond the margins another procedure will be performed to eliminate the rest. Overall, the basal cell carcinoma prognosis is excellent. Most everyone who has a basal cell will die of another disease. Basal cell rarely spreads and is a very slow growing tumor. That is why basal cell carcinomas are not even tracked in tumor registries because they are so benign and do not tend to cause patient very much trouble.
One the other hand, renal cell carcinoma is a more serious disease. The renal cell carcinoma prognosis is much worse than basal cell. When a person is diagnosed with renal cell, they need extensive treatment and other interventions. Part of the reason why the renal cell prognosis is so much worse is that it is difficult to make the diagnosis early in the stages of the disease. Renal cell is a tumor of the kidneys, which lie deep into the abdomen. The tumors have to grow in size large enough to start to affect the surrounding organs for them to be found. Many times the first thing that a patient notices is that they are urinating blood. In basal cell, the patient can see the tumor since it is on the skin.
If the renal cell tumor is less than 4cm, then there is a 90-95% chance at survival at 5 years. When the tumor is larger than 4 cm but is still located inside the kidney and only has local spread, there is a 5 year survival rate of 60 to 65%. But when the kidney cancer has metastasized, the survival rate drops to 5 to 15%.
The comparison between these two cancers shows the striking differences in the survival between the different types of tumors. Some are rather insignificant while others will cause an early death. These differences in tumor biology and staging are the primary ways to establish the carcinoma prognosis and predict how long a person will survive with cancer.
renal cell carcinoma prognosis | basal cell carcinoma prognosis | Carcinoma Prognosis