Chemo with kidney removal

kernal

I was prepared for the surgery to have a kidney with a tumor removed. Now the doctor says he just got new guidelines for my issue. That is to have weekly chemo for 3 months prior to the surgery instead of after. I wasn't aware of going to be having chemo after but he said that after surgery he would send me for an evaluation for the chemo. I'm very reluctant to go with the chemo.

Has anyone had experience with this chemo?

eug91

Kernal-

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/kidney-cancer/treating/chemotherapy.html

Kidney cancer isn't usually treated with chemo. Are you sure it was chemo and not immunotherapy or some other targeted therapy? I've heard of some doctors using treatments to try and reduce the tumor before surgery, but this is the first I've heard of chemo.

Talk to your doctor about your reluctance, and hopefully they can explain their reasoning and address your concerns.

kernal

Seems to be from reocurance in the bladder: "Following ablation of UTUC tumors and after confirming there is no perforation of the bladder or upper tract, clinicians may instill adjuvant pelvicalyceal chemotherapy (Conditional Recommendation; Evidence Level: Grade C) or intravesical chemotherapy (Expert Opinion) to decrease the risk of urothelial cancer recurrence."

eug91

Ah, now I gotcha. Your doctor is proposing chemo as adjuvant therapy for urothelial cancer - not kidney cancer. I misunderstood.

Hopefully someone else can chime in with info for you - and if you haven't already, check the bladder cancer forum here.

kernal

Pretty good that you know about it. I would sure like to know more. He still takes out the kidney afterwards due to the tumor biopsy showing cancer. I thought he said once a week for three months but I may have been mistaken and he may have meant 3 weeks.