Chewing the cud-from an older study

At the time of Dx in 2006, I assembled a volume of information about the new topic in my life-Kidney Cancer and surviving. Recently, I was purging some of it, and refiling monographs and items to retain. I came across an article co-authored by my urologic/oncologist/surgical specialist when he was at UCLA, "CA-A Cancer Journal for Clinicians", Vol. 46, No.5 September/October 1996.

In it, there was a quote from a Swedish study, published as "Proceedings of the Eleventh Scandinavian Transplantation Meeting." Malmo, January 30-31,1981, etc.
And this will blow your mind: my comments in ( ).
"Asymptomatic renal cell carcinoma may be incidentally diagnosed on routine physical exam or by adbominal imaging studies obtained for unrelated problems." (tell us something we haven't already figured out.) "Tumors identified by CT are often low stage and associated with an excellent prognosis. Careful postmortem studies have documented that a significant number of renal cell tumors are not diagnosed during life." (it's coming) " A study of 16,249 autopsies in Sweden revealed that 350 patients had renal cell carcinoma, 235 of which had been previously undetedted." (pick up your jaw-your mouth is hanging open.)

The journal article went on:
"In a review of the Greater Los Angeles Tumor Registry, the number of incidental renal masses detected has increased significantly as the use of imaging techniques has expanded. Another servies noted that only four percent of asymptomatictumors were diagnosed in 1976. By 1991, 61 percent were detected. This number continues to increase."

And those of us on this board are living proof that the advances in testing machinery, interpretation of the tests, and surgical procedures have paid off. Not to mention the progress in drug testing and bringing those items to market. The current stats say one in four women will have breast cancer in their lifetimes. And most men will have prostate cancer at the time of death (even it was never symptomatic). Kind of makes you look around a crowded room and wonder who's sitting there with undiagnosed cancer.

So....to everyone out there, have a great weekend. Hope your weather is tolerable, especially if you are in a hot zone. Go hug someone you like or love and live to slay more dragons.
donna_lee

ps-we're celebrating #6 with Bridget-the Irish, Scots, English, Dutch, German, Polish, and ?? We're stubborn and independent, you know.