One in four kidney cancer cases misdiagnosed as lesser ailment

A QUARTER of people with kidney cancer are being misdiagnosed with urine infections, back pain and other common ailments, a damning new report has found.

Kidney cancer patients are often being incorrectly told they do not have the life-threatening disease and sent home without further checks, delaying treatment and reducing the chance of survival, a report into patient care by charity Kidney Cancer UK has revealed.

Most commonly, people have been told they have a urine infection, followed by back pain and muscular issues, and kidney stones or cysts. Others

were told they had a cough, asthma, or broken bone.

And when people were diagnosed with cancer, more than a third were “unhappy” with how they had been told by doctors, with one man revealing he had been diagnosed over email.

Mark Norris, 59, from Manchester, said he found out he had cancer in January 2023 after receiving an email on the Manchester University Hospitals Foundation NHS Trust (MFT) Trust’s app.

“It came as a massive shock, and to receive the diagnosis via email was possibly one of the worst things about the whole situation,” he said. “Thankfully, the care I received by the NHS and my follow up care has been excellent.”

Kidney Cancer UK said the “concerning gaps in communication” were due to a “shortage of time and excessive workload” for staff, which is causing “unnecessary confusion and anxiety”.

A shortage of kidney cancer specialists left one woman waiting more than five months to start treatment, by which time she had also developed a tumour in the lung.

Hazel, who wanted to withhold her surname, said she had been fast-tracked in April 2023 after a scan found an abnormal tumour, but didn’t have a diagnosis confirmed until August, when she had to be transferred to another hospital and “start all over again” because of the shortage of staff and growing waiting list.