Scared Not sure what to expect Need some advise

Welcome to our club that

Welcome to our club that nobody really wants to join, but you found a great place with many great people.  A 2cm tumor is very small (I think mine was 2.9 cm), and will be removed surgically.  Questions to ask your urologist:

1. Will the surgergy be an open surgergy or done robotically/laparoscopically?

2. For a tumor 2 cm, the surgery should be a partial nephrectromy, and ask if the surgery will be a partial (tumor removed, kidney preserved) or radical (tumor and kidney removed) nephrectomy.

Regarding the second point, the first urologist I visited said that he would likely have to remove my entire right kidney because my tumor was a in a trickly location.  I did not feel comfortable with that approach and sought a seecond opinion at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where I had my surgery.

Don't be afraid to seek a second opinion.

Being scared and confused are completely normal.  I was very scared, especially the day before the surgery.  But like everyone else on this board, evertything turned out well.  I like to look at it this way--like you, my tumor was discovered because I was having a different medical issue that caused a CT scan of my abdomen.  And I am very thankful for that issue, because that tumor would have continued to grow.

As far as other options, the other options are limited.  Maybe your urologist may have another option, but most of the time, surgery is the best route. 

welcome Ryanfan-

Sorry you had to join us, but this is a great forum here. It really helped me out when I was first diagnosed. We've all been where you're at now - we got through it and we know you can, too. Let us know if you have any questions or just need to vent. We're here for you. 

As the others have said, you're fortunate to have caught it early. When you meet with your doctor, ask if he/she has experience with RCC (renal cell carcinoma, aka kidney cancer). Will they do the nephrectomy, or will there be another urologic oncologist doing the procedure? Your doctor's explanations may come fast & furious, so considering bringing a notebook or cell phone with you to jot down notes of their answers so you'll be able to remember later. 

You've got this!

Positive_Mental_Attitude said:

Welcome to our club that

Welcome to our club that nobody really wants to join, but you found a great place with many great people.  A 2cm tumor is very small (I think mine was 2.9 cm), and will be removed surgically.  Questions to ask your urologist:

1. Will the surgergy be an open surgergy or done robotically/laparoscopically?

2. For a tumor 2 cm, the surgery should be a partial nephrectromy, and ask if the surgery will be a partial (tumor removed, kidney preserved) or radical (tumor and kidney removed) nephrectomy.

Regarding the second point, the first urologist I visited said that he would likely have to remove my entire right kidney because my tumor was a in a trickly location.  I did not feel comfortable with that approach and sought a seecond opinion at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where I had my surgery.

Don't be afraid to seek a second opinion.

Being scared and confused are completely normal.  I was very scared, especially the day before the surgery.  But like everyone else on this board, evertything turned out well.  I like to look at it this way--like you, my tumor was discovered because I was having a different medical issue that caused a CT scan of my abdomen.  And I am very thankful for that issue, because that tumor would have continued to grow.

As far as other options, the other options are limited.  Maybe your urologist may have another option, but most of the time, surgery is the best route. 

Agree completely with your

Agree completely with your post.  I would add that the urologist you see should be one that specializes in urological oncology.  The only other option for removal is ablation.  In cryogenic-ablation, the tumor is supercooled a few times and that kills the cancer cells.  In RF (radio. Pfrequency) ablation, the opposite happens.  The tumor is subjected to extreme heat which kills the cancer cells.  Both have a 99 - 95% success rate (at least as of 2016 when I was exploring treatments) while surgery for our kind of small tumors has a 99%+ success rate.  I had the surgery because that’s what the doc recommended and because it gets the tumor out rather than killing it and leaving the dead cells inside.

Yeah, it’s a very scary thing to be told you have, but at the size of yours and with the ridiculous advancements in treatments over the last decade, you should be fine after treatment.