Battling Self-Blame and Misconceptions About Renal Cancer as a Black American
It’s easy to fall into patterns of self-shaming with a renal cancer diagnosis. Here’s how Black Americans can reclaim their story.
Renal cell carcinoma, the most common type of kidney cancer, has almost 270,000 new cases diagnosed yearly worldwide, according to a study published in 2022 in the Journal of Kidney Cancer and VHL. In the United States, the number of new renal cancer cases has dramatically increased from 58,000 in 2010 to 76,080 in 2021, with a more rapid increase in Black Americans than white Americans, as highlighted in the journal BMC Cancer.
Despite improvements in detection, treatments, and patient outcomes, Black Americans must contend with a variety of obstacles to quality care for renal cancer, a disease that affects them disproportionately. And this situation is made worse by a tendency for Black people to blame themselves for their disease.
Challenges for Black Americans With Renal Cancer
The roadblocks Black Americans face with renal cancer diagnosis and treatment are the same as those they face when dealing with the American healthcare system, says M. Leonard Seard II, MD, a urologist at UCI Medical Center in Orange County, California.
Black Americans face difficulties paying for healthcare, accessing care, getting education about care, and navigating the biases of care providers, Dr. Seard says. And navigating a cancer diagnosis and treatment increases the impact of these socioeconomic, clinical, and environmental obstacles.
From the initial imaging and possible biopsy that might be required for diagnosis to the surgery or medications to treat renal cancer, getting effective care is dependent on having good access to affordable healthcare, says David Braun, MD, PhD, a medical oncologist and an assistant professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine and a member of the Yale Cancer Center. Due to systemic barriers, like lack of health insurance, bias from healthcare professionals, and limited transportation access, access to healthcare is not always equal for Black Americans.
Misconceptions and Self-Blame in the Face of Renal Cancer
“Perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions I see is the feeling some patients have that they’re responsible for their cancer. ‘What could I have done differently?’ they ask,” says Dr. Braun. Or as Seard adds, “‘What did I do to cause this?’”
”Kidney cancer is never the fault of the patient, and rarely is there something the patient could have ‘done differently’ to prevent it,” Braun says.
Although risk factors like diabetes and poorly controlled blood pressure can predispose people to kidney cancer, the risk never completely goes away, says Lance Hampton, MD, chair of the department of urology and a urologic oncologist at Massey Cancer Center in Richmond, Virginia. He advises people with kidney cancer to not engage in self-blame, and he encourages people that it is a curable disease, especially if diagnosed early.
How to Handle Misconceptions Tied to Renal Cancer
Seard encourages Black people to seek physicians or specialists of color or to consult specialists recommended by physicians of color when possible. This can help create a more comfortable environment for speaking with them about any concerns and being confident that they will understand the experiences of a Black person and how they might impact someone’s experience with the disease.
Seard also advises educating yourself about renal cancer to be a more vigorous self-advocate. However, because this is not always possible, having a person you trust to advocate for you is also beneficial, he adds.
You can find reliable resources about renal cancer and online support groups on websites such as:
- National Kidney Foundation
- CANCER care
- American Society of Clinical Oncology
- American Cancer Society
- National Cancer Institute
You can also look for doctors who identify as Black Americans or physicians of color on websites like:
“I think it’s good for people with chronic illness and cancer to not think of the illness as defining,” Joseph Vassalotti, MD, associate clinical professor of medicine in the division of nephrology at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City and chief medical officer of the National Kidney Foundation. Instead, seek connections and support groups that will help you recognize you’re someone who happens to have renal cancer as part of your life journey, he says.