Concerned about a 2 cm kidney mass

concernedBill

Hello everyone,

I came across this site searching for information on the web (as Im sure everyone does) regarding the topic of Kidney cancer and I am quite impressed with the posts! I'm 48 and recently had an ultrasound done with respect to some abdominal pain. Although the abdominal pain is gone and all was fine, there was a region of interest on my kidney which I was told could not be seen properly and thus a CT scan (with contrast) was ordered. The CT scan revealed a mass (2 cm) but according to my doctor (GP), it wasn't clear if the mass was cancerous or benign and thus he referred me to a urologist and mentioned I will need to have an MRI done as well to help determine whether it is cancerous or not. The GP says the silver lining to this all is that it was found accidentally and it is small. I wont see the urologist until early January and of course, I am very concerned. From what I am reading, there is a high probability that it is cancer and although I am trying to stay calm before seeing the urologist and hearing what they have to say, it is rather nerve racking!! Is it normal for a CT scan (with contrast) to still leave question as to whether a mass is cancerous or benign?

Thanks!!

Mmoses25

First of all welcome to the group your mass is quite small I’m guessing they will want to remove it with just follow up scans I doubt since it’s so small that it has not spread stop reading the internet most stuff on there is old news enjoy your Christmas and relax I hope you enjoy your time with your family

concernedBill

https://csn.cancer.org/discussion/comment/1691565#Comment_1691565

Hi Mmoses25,

Thanks for the prompt response and I hear you about reading internet stuff! Good advice, and of course, hope you enjoy your Christmas too !!

AliceB1950

Yeah, that's pretty small and even if it's cancer, they grow slowly, so try to not worry excessively. Mine was 7 cm and still (barely) stage one. I had about two and a half months between it being found and surgery.

concernedBill

https://csn.cancer.org/discussion/comment/1691577#Comment_1691577

Thanks Alice, good advice re. not to worry excessively. So far so good, im waiting to see what the urologist says and keeping calm until then...

droopy01

Hi. Sorry that the scans found a mass but good news that yours is so small.

Mine was a little larger than yours. I went about 5 months between the time mine was found and the surgery. I had robotic assisted laparoscopic partial and it was not as bad as I had feared. Recovery has been great.

Good luck with your treatment.

concernedBill

https://csn.cancer.org/discussion/comment/1691591#Comment_1691591

Thanks for the message "droopy01" and great to hear that your recovery has been great, all the best!

medic1971

Hi Bill, check out my bio and when you get a chance watch this video. It's urologist from MD Anderson taking about the management of a small renal mass.

Evaluation and Management of the Small Renal Mass, Surena F. Matin, MD

https://youtu.be/blUI-ZzcViE

concernedBill

https://csn.cancer.org/discussion/comment/1691607#Comment_1691607

Hi "medic1971"

Thanks for the message and good to hear that your Dec 2021 scan/x-ray/blood work are all clean! Thanks also for sharing the video - it was very informative!

Tobi

Hi Bill....my mass was found and the story is similar. I had a CT then and MRI and then surgery. Mine was 3.5cm and stage 1 grade 1...so try not to worry. I know its difficult having just gone through it 4 months ago I remember all too well freaking out. In the end though everyone was correct and I had very little to be worried about.

concernedBill

https://csn.cancer.org/discussion/comment/1691621#Comment_1691621

Hi Tobi,

Thanks for the message and words of encouragement! Nice to hear that you're good and of course, all the best!

bramrebello

Hi Bill, yours is a small lesion compared to mine which was 3cm. and I had to undergo a robotic procedure in Nov.2020 and although as frequently mentioned in these post the diagnosis is scary. I was fortunate enough to have the procedure done within 20days of incidental discovery as with all theses small lesions, the procedure itself was not stressful and I recovered within a very short time including 4days hospital stay. Stay cheerful and enjoy your holiday season because these small lesions are almost always curable.

medic1971

HI Bill, sorry I was about to go to bed when I dropped a quick post last night.

That abdominal pain may have saved your life. 2cm is fairly small and has great outcomes.

When my first mass was discovered, I waited 3 months for surgery. They even gave me the choice to watch it for 6 months, I passed on that choice. Had a robotic partial nephrectomy, stayed two nights in the hospital, stayed four nights in a hotel, and flew home the next day. I stayed off work for 6 weeks, but I could have gone back in 4 weeks.

Three years after the first surgery something popped up on my CT, other kidney this time. MD Anderson watched that sucker for 2 1/2 years before they could remove it. My doctor told me it had to be bigger than a 1cm before they could safely remove it. So now we are 5 years after the first surgery. Surgery was scheduled about 8 weeks after my CT scan. In that time I did something very different. I started training. First four weeks I had to easy back into working out, but the 30 days prior to surgery I was getting after it. Six days a week I was working out. I was doing cardio 30-45 minutes per day, core strengthening, weight lifting, stretching, and even mediation. I had a completely different experience second time around. I only spent one night in the hospital and I could have easily walked back to the Airbnb.

I'm not sure how much time you have before surgery, but you might consider talking to your doctor about starting to exercise. You might already be an fit person, if so you should do just fine. You got this Bill! Keep us posted.

concernedBill

https://csn.cancer.org/discussion/comment/1691626#Comment_1691626

Hi again "medic1971" and thanks for the further info! Im seeing the urologist first week of January at which point, my GP mentioned I will need an fMRI done too so not sure when surgery would be done (assuming it has to be done - which seems like it will). I completely agree with your approach to training and definitely a proponent of being in good shape before surgery. I do train regularly but a good reason to increase that a bit now!!

Thanks again for the info and advice and of course, I will keep you and the group posted. Great to see so others on here reach out and offer information, encouragement, etc!

concernedBill

https://csn.cancer.org/discussion/comment/1691624#Comment_1691624

Hi "bramrebello", wow 20 days within the incidental discovery is fast! Thanks for sharing your experience and good to hear you have recovered in a short time! All the best!

Bay Area Guy

Hi Bill. Sorry you have to join us, but you’ve come to a good place with plenty of great people. My tale started with microscopic blood found during a urine test done as part of my annual physical. My doc thought it was a kidney stone, but referred me for a CT scan. The scan found a lesion slightly smaller than yours (estimated at 1.5cm at the time). My doc said I had a choice between being referred to a pretty bad hospital, a decent hospital and Stanford University and Clinics. I chose Stanford and got a urologic oncologist who is, without a doubt, the best doc I’ve ever had. He explained that lesions that small are not always malignant. So he recommended active surveillance, meaning scans every six months to determine if there was any growth to be certain it was, in fact, malignant. Naturally, I was concerned about growth and spread, but he said that lesions this size, if they grow at all, typically grow very slowly and that they almost never spread. What endeared me to him was when he said that if I could not handle the possibility of having something potentially cancerous inside me while we did the active surveillance, he could arrange to ge5 it removed (as he was not a surgeon), but said that his recommendation was not to potentially reduce my kidney function unless it was, in fact, cancer. He also explained that the gold standard for lesions this small was active surveillance. This was in early 2014, and I don’t know if that standard has changed.

My surveillance lasted until April, 2016, when an ultrasound identified growth to 1.8 cm. So he referred me to a surgical colleague who removed one cubic inch of my right kidney in April, 2016. The pathology report identified it as chromophobe renal cell carcinoma, a form of cancer that’s very slow growing, very, very rarely spreads and very, very rarely recurs. It was about as good a pathology report as one could get after a cancer diagnosis.

I’d strongly suggest not consulting Dr Google a lot. I did exactly that and found sites that said I had a great chance of survival, sites that said I had only months to live and still other sites trying to sell me magic elixirs that would cure the cancer and maybe even grow my hair back. You have to wade through all that and try to decipher when they were written (as treatments for all cancers have made quantum leaps in the last decade) as well as seeing if the author has any particular axe to grind. Sites like this are great because you have people that have gone through exactly what you’re looking at and have had a wide variety of experiences. I’m in awe of these folks as all of them have gone through far more serious cases than my piddling little lesion, yet they all share the same desire to help others.

No matter what happens, you can rest assured you’ll have a ton of support.

Bay Area Guy

Hi Bill. Sorry you have to join us, but you’ve come to a good place with plenty of great people. My tale started with microscopic blood found during a urine test done as part of my annual physical. My doc thought it was a kidney stone, but referred me for a CT scan. The scan found a lesion slightly smaller than yours (estimated at 1.5cm at the time). My doc said I had a choice between being referred to a pretty bad hospital, a decent hospital and Stanford University and Clinics. I chose Stanford and got a urologic oncologist who is, without a doubt, the best doc I’ve ever had. He explained that lesions that small are not always malignant. So he recommended active surveillance, meaning scans every six months to determine if there was any growth to be certain it was, in fact, malignant. Naturally, I was concerned about growth and spread, but he said that lesions this size, if they grow at all, typically grow very slowly and that they almost never spread. What endeared me to him was when he said that if I could not handle the possibility of having something potentially cancerous inside me while we did the active surveillance, he could arrange to ge5 it removed (as he was not a surgeon), but said that his recommendation was not to potentially reduce my kidney function unless it was, in fact, cancer. He also explained that the gold standard for lesions this small was active surveillance. This was in early 2014, and I don’t know if that standard has changed.

My surveillance lasted until April, 2016, when an ultrasound identified growth to 1.8 cm. So he referred me to a surgical colleague who removed one cubic inch of my right kidney in April, 2016. The pathology report identified it as chromophobe renal cell carcinoma, a form of cancer that’s very slow growing, very, very rarely spreads and very, very rarely recurs. It was about as good a pathology report as one could get after a cancer diagnosis.

I’d strongly suggest not consulting Dr Google a lot. I did exactly that and found sites that said I had a great chance of survival, sites that said I had only months to live and still other sites trying to sell me magic elixirs that would cure the cancer and maybe even grow my hair back. You have to wade through all that and try to decipher when they were written (as treatments for all cancers have made quantum leaps in the last decade) as well as seeing if the author has any particular axe to grind. Sites like this are great because you have people that have gone through exactly what you’re looking at and have had a wide variety of experiences. I’m in awe of these folks as all of them have gone through far more serious cases than my piddling little lesion, yet they all share the same desire to help others.

No matter what happens, you’ll have a lot of support.

Bay Area Guy

Hi Bill. Sorry you have to join us, but you’ve come to a good place with plenty of great people. My tale started with microscopic blood found during a urine test done as part of my annual physical. My doc thought it was a kidney stone, but referred me for a CT scan. The scan found a lesion slightly smaller than yours (estimated at 1.5cm at the time). My doc said I had a choice between being referred to a pretty bad hospital, a decent hospital and Stanford University and Clinics. I chose Stanford and got a urologic oncologist who is, without a doubt, the best doc I’ve ever had. He explained that lesions that small are not always malignant. So he recommended active surveillance, meaning scans every six months to determine if there was any growth to be certain it was, in fact, malignant. Naturally, I was concerned about growth and spread, but he said that lesions this size, if they grow at all, typically grow very slowly and that they almost never spread. What endeared me to him was when he said that if I could not handle the possibility of having something potentially cancerous inside me while we did the active surveillance, he could arrange to ge5 it removed (as he was not a surgeon), but said that his recommendation was not to potentially reduce my kidney function unless it was, in fact, cancer. He also explained that the gold standard for lesions this small was active surveillance. This was in early 2014, and I don’t know if that standard has changed.

My surveillance lasted until April, 2016, when an ultrasound identified growth to 1.8 cm. So he referred me to a surgical colleague who removed one cubic inch of my right kidney in April, 2016. The pathology report identified it as chromophobe renal cell carcinoma, a form of cancer that’s very slow growing, very, very rarely spreads and very, very rarely recurs. It was about as good a pathology report as one could get after a cancer diagnosis.

I’d strongly suggest not consulting Dr Google a lot. I did exactly that and found sites that said I had a great chance of survival, sites that said I had only months to live and still other sites trying to sell me magic elixirs that would cure the cancer and maybe even grow my hair back. You have to wade through all that and try to decipher when they were written (as treatments for all cancers have made quantum leaps in the last decade) as well as seeing if the author has any particular axe to grind. Sites like this are great because you have people that have gone through exactly what you’re looking at and have had a wide variety of experiences. I’m in awe of these folks as all of them have gone through far more serious cases than my piddling little lesion, yet they all share the same desire to help others?

Bay Area Guy

In my case, that was similar to yours, the CT with contrast was still inconclusive. I was put on active surveillance and had either an ultrasound or a CT every six months. That lasted about 2-1/2 years, then an ultrasound found some growth, minimal as it was, so out it came in a robotic assisted operation. This started in late 2013 and th3 surgery was June, 2016.

roxrod72

hi, happened to us with my husband. Mass on the kidney. Just incase I went and got a cancer insurance just incase before actually being diagnosed. Thank God I did. It was cancer. Caught it on time. They removed his kidney. He is doing great today but the insurance really helped us in every way. Keep positive. Prayers for you.

concernedBill

Hi "roxrod72",

Thank you for the message and for sharing the info about insurance - that is definitely good and helpful advice! Happy to hear your husband is doing great and thanks for your prayers! All the best to you and your husband!