chromophobe rcc

Rms1021
Rms1021 Member Posts: 1
in Kidney Cancer #1

I am a 31 year old female. In July, 2015, I incidentally found out I had a mass in my kidney from an ultrasound in the ER due to a gallstone. After having my gallbladder removed, my surgeon ordered a CT scan, which confirmed a solid tumor. I was able to find a wonderful urologist who specializes in robotic partial nephrectomies, and had my surgery September 8th. The surgery was pretty uneventful and recovery went well. A week after surgery I got my path report back. My tumor was a 4 x 4 cm chromophobe renal cell carcinoma, stage 1, grade 3, with clear margins. No lymph nodes were removed to check for any lymph node involvement. I had a three month CT scan done in December. My urologist read the scan right after it was done, before the radiologist had a chance to look at it, and told me everything looked great. In January, I had a follow up appointment with my oncologist, and he went over the scan with me. It said there was a 1.2 x 0.7 cm hypodense tissue that had decreased attenuation adjacent to the radiodense post surgical material, which could possible be scar tissue, but needed continue follow up to exclude residual or recurrent neoplasm. Has anyone else had a finding like this on their CT scan? My cancer stage was low, but the grade was high, so it's hard for me now to worry. Any help would be appreciated!

Comments

  • sblairc
    sblairc Member Posts: 585 Member
    #2
    "Grade" does NOT matter in chromophobe kidney cancer.

    Just so you know, chromophobe is TOTALLY different than other Kidney cancers in that he GRADE of the tumor does NOT  matter like most other cancers. A quick google search should put your mind TOTALLY AT EASE about this. 

    It is also known to be an idolent type of cancer which means slow growing. I wouldn't worry!! 

     

    WELCOME!

  • medic1971
    medic1971 Member Posts: 225 Member
    #3
    Chromophobe here too

    Chromophobe is strange bird.  When I was called with my path report I was told that I had two mass and that both were chromophobe.  One of questions I asked was what the grade was and he said that MD Anderson no longer grades nonsarcomatoid chromophobe tumors. When I asked why, he said Fuhrman nuclear grade has no prognostic value when it comes to this type of mass.  When I looked at my path report I saw this:  

    Histologic grade (Fuhrman nuclear grade): N/A 

    I did some research on my own and here is my very basic interpretation on what I found.  That basically the Fuhrman grade is normally high because of the way the nucleus are shaped not because they are taking on aggressive features, but rather they were just "born that way"  It's kind of like a card game where the deck is stacked against chromophobe.  Does that make any sense? 

    Here is a paper that I found online:  

    Fuhrman grading is not appropriate for chromophobe renal cell carcinoma. Got to love the title to that one Cool

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17527087

    I would say that tumor stage, and sarcomatoid differentiation are of much more significant factors than grade.

    As far as that hypodense finding on your CT scan I suspect that is just scar tissue.  

    If you have any other questions please feel free to post them or message me.

    Good luck!

    Jason

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