Pathology Report - Lymph Node Involvement

todd121

The doctor called with my path report today. I guess my doctor had tried to call a few days back and my voice mail was full. I did notice that, come to think of it.

I'm a T3A N0 M0 and my grade was 3. They were calling me a T1 going into the surgery, so I'm a little shocked. Not very good news, and not what I had hoped for. The T3A was because there was some involvement with the veins. He said it was with the smaller veins and wasn't into the major veins. It wasn't visible on the CT scan.

One of the things that bothered me is that they are saying there was no lymph node involvement. But there were no lymph nodes in the kidney or fat they removed, and they didn't take any nearby lymph nodes. I asked why, and he said they only take them if they see evidence of enlargement and they all looked fine. I don't get that. I thought they would sample a few to look at under the microscope to make sure there was no involvement that wasn't visible via the CT scan (as in the stuff that wasn't visible that involved the veins).

So, they say in 3 months we'll do another scan and see if anything new is there.

My uncle is a medical oncologist (retired). He suggested I try to find a study for adjuvant therapy to reduce recurrence. Does anybody know of anything like that in the Los Angeles area? I wouldn't mind travelling if it had to be done. I would like to try and reduce my chances of this coming back (wouldn't we all!). I'm not too keen on waiting and see, but I suppose there's going to be that no matter what I do.

My nerves are shot.

I don't know who to share this info with and when. That's the toughest thing right now. My uncle said to consider carefully who I tell. He said people will treat me differently for a number of reasons once they know.

I feel a bit awkward coming in here new and asking all the questions you guys have probably all talked about before. On the other hand, this is part of what I evidently have to do, so I'm doing it.

Todd