Chemo/radiation ?

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madzoon
madzoon Member Posts: 40
in Kidney Cancer #1

I have a question?  Do you know if you have kidney cancer and they remove all of or partial kidney and  lymp nodes.  is chemo /radiation involved? or is it they just remove them and call it a day?

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  • icemantoo
    icemantoo Member Posts: 3,361 Member
    #2
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    They call it a day.

    Mad,  There is no chemo or radiation involded in your surgery.

     

    Unless mets develope in the future there will be no chemo or radiation in your future. The odds of that are unlikely give the size of your tumors, but are possable because of the lymph node involvement. You will be monitored by scans for at least 5 years.

     

    I am 12 years out with no other treatment than the original Neph. although I also see a Nephrologist to monitor my Kidney function which over the years decreases a little as a result of losing a Kidney. It can also decrease as a result of age, high blood pressure, diabities or other factors relating to Kidney disease. Loss of Kidney function increases heart related issues as you age which is one reason they do partial Nephs if possable.

     

    Icemantoo

  • todd121
    todd121 Member Posts: 1,448 Member
    #3
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    Chemo/Radiation

    I'm not disagreeing with Iceman. It's sound information based on a single RCC tumor contained in the kidney.

    There's other types of cancer that can be in the kidney besides RCC that can result in a partial/full kidney removal and you might end up with chemo...for example there's a cancer called transitional cell carcinoma or urothelial cell carcinoma that is very similar to bladder cancer but these tumors can be found in the kidney. It is treated like bladder cancer and you might get chemo. It's much more treatable than RCC and has a better prognosis.

    Like iceman said, there's no approved treatment other than partial/full nephrectomy for a single tumor in the kidney that is RCC. There have been some studies done to give different kinds of chemo and some of us have tried those. So far the ones that have been done did not prove to be any good. The results are not available yet for some of the more recent ones. Most of those studies are years away from finishing. There may be some ongoing/new studies that are giving chemo to RCC patients post nephrectomy. I participated in one last year. I was Stage 3 Grade 3. Because of the high risk of recurrence, I took part in one of them last year.

    Todd

    P.S. Sorry. I hadn't connected your question with your other post until later. If all the cancer is in the kidney and it's RCC, no chemo or radiation. If it's outside the kidney like in the lymph node and they can remove it all, still probably no radiation or chemo. They do have some chemo if it's spread to other parts of the body and can't be removed. Radiation from what I've seen posted here is usually only done on tumors near the spine or in the brain. (Someone will surely correct me if I'm wrong). But you should be asking these questions to your doctor and if your doctor is a urologst, you might want to talk to an oncologist with RCC experience at some point, especially if there is RCC outside the kidney in the lymph nodes.

     

  • madzoon
    madzoon Member Posts: 40
    #4
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    todd121 said:

    Chemo/Radiation

    I'm not disagreeing with Iceman. It's sound information based on a single RCC tumor contained in the kidney.

    There's other types of cancer that can be in the kidney besides RCC that can result in a partial/full kidney removal and you might end up with chemo...for example there's a cancer called transitional cell carcinoma or urothelial cell carcinoma that is very similar to bladder cancer but these tumors can be found in the kidney. It is treated like bladder cancer and you might get chemo. It's much more treatable than RCC and has a better prognosis.

    Like iceman said, there's no approved treatment other than partial/full nephrectomy for a single tumor in the kidney that is RCC. There have been some studies done to give different kinds of chemo and some of us have tried those. So far the ones that have been done did not prove to be any good. The results are not available yet for some of the more recent ones. Most of those studies are years away from finishing. There may be some ongoing/new studies that are giving chemo to RCC patients post nephrectomy. I participated in one last year. I was Stage 3 Grade 3. Because of the high risk of recurrence, I took part in one of them last year.

    Todd

    P.S. Sorry. I hadn't connected your question with your other post until later. If all the cancer is in the kidney and it's RCC, no chemo or radiation. If it's outside the kidney like in the lymph node and they can remove it all, still probably no radiation or chemo. They do have some chemo if it's spread to other parts of the body and can't be removed. Radiation from what I've seen posted here is usually only done on tumors near the spine or in the brain. (Someone will surely correct me if I'm wrong). But you should be asking these questions to your doctor and if your doctor is a urologst, you might want to talk to an oncologist with RCC experience at some point, especially if there is RCC outside the kidney in the lymph nodes.

     

    Wow

    Wow ok a lot of great info Ty.  I was told the tumor was protruding from within the kidney about coming out  my para-aortic is enlarged.  I have meeting Tuesday will get more info them will keep u up dated Ty again 

     

    madzoon

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