?RCC

fingerscrossed38

Recently had an ultrasound for abdominal pain with a 3.8cm mass found highly suspicious for RCC, now waiting for further imaging. Having a hard time waiting and know what to do next! What do you wish you knew leading into your diagnosis?

AliceB1950

With most cancers, there's a period between the first finding and getting all the information you need, where you just have to kind of go with the flow. It's hard because our instinct is to ask questions or do research, but there are just too many variables until you have your CT or MRI and get more information. Yours is pretty small based on the ultrasound , but don't be surprised if it shows as a different size on the scan, since they don't see masses the same way. It sounds weird, but you're lucky you had pain that took you to your doctor; many of us had no symptoms and our cancers were incidental findings when being scanned for something else. If it's any comfort, mine was 7 cm and that is still stage 1, so you've got plenty of wiggle room.

key2025

Would second Alice’s opinion that it’s still early on in terms of diagnosis. If looking at statistics would be helpful, a solid entry point is https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/kidrp.html. Most patients will be in stage 1 but stage 4 is also possible regardless of size if the cancer has spread. This is the source of uncertainty at your point and why they need to do more imaging to rule it out.

If you would like to explore additional treatment locations, a good resource is https://www.cancer.gov/research/infrastructure/cancer-centers. Although for stage I it’s probably less critical as long as you have access to appropriate imaging.