What are the earliest signs of kidney cancer?
According to Cancer Research UK, kidney cancer is most commonly found in people aged 75 or over, accounting for around a third of new cases each year.
Some early signs can be harder to spot in older people because symptoms like back pain and fatigue are often dismissed as side effects of ageing.
Unexplained weight loss
Losing weight is not often something that comes naturally to people, so it can be a cause for concern when it happens without any effort at all.
Unexplained weight loss is a key characteristic of nearly all cancers and is one of the most common signs of kidney cancer.
As the tumour spreads to other organs, clusters of cancerous cells can affect the digestive processes or the production of hormones in your body, resulting in a loss of appetite.
This can leave you feeling uninterested in eating and lead to weight loss.
