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Potential Prognosis?

lizlenzer1998
lizlenzer1998 CSN Member Posts: 1 Member
in Kidney Cancer #1

I have a family member who has stage 4 Grade 3 renal cell carcinoma that has spread to her lungs and brain.

She had a nephrectomy of her right kidney to get rid of all of the cancer on her kidney.

She is going to undergo Gamma Knife radiation and 2 infusions of immunotherapy.

When I look online it shows that the prognosis is roughly a year. But it wont tell me anything about how gamma knife radiation on top of immunotherapy could change that?

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  • eug91
    eug91 CSN Member Posts: 471 Member
    #2

    Hi lizlenzer-

    As for your question, it's hard to say. It really depends on so many factors - where it's spread, your family member's age and general health, how she reacts to the immunotherapy, etc. There's no real rule of thumb or percentage of how much a targeted treatment like gamma knife could improve things.

    But the good news is that there is reason to be optimistic. The current treatments for rcc are better than ever, survival rates are going up, and the stage 4 numbers you see online are outdated. We have members here who were diagnosed as stage 4 and have been around for years.

    Stay positive. We're with you!

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