Oncocytoma

lomernik
lomernik Member Posts: 3
in Kidney Cancer #1
Hi everyone -

You probably remember me - I posted a couple of weeks ago asking how long we could expect my husband to be in the hospital after his robotic partial nephrectomy. (He was released after two days.)

I wanted to post to let you know the pathology report showed that my husband's tumor was benign! His urologist had told us (and we had read) that 95% of these tumors are cancerous and the urologist never even discussed doing a biopsy. Obviously my husband was one of the lucky ones and is in the 5% non-cancerous tumor category. We were shocked when the surgeon called with the results, but thankful that he does not (and did not) have cancer. The surgeon told us that even though it was non-cancerous, oncocytoma tumors still need to be removed because as they grow they can still damage the kidney, so we aren't feeling that the surgery was for nothing. We see the surgeon for a two week follow up on Friday. I'll be curious to learn if there will be any follow up in the future (scans, etc). I'm assuming there won't be.

Interestingly, immediately after hearing the word 'benign', my husband started feeling bad about all of the other people who have/had cancer that he knows. He spent a great deal of time talking to people after his diagnosis and felt he got great support from those people. He didn't know how he was going to face those people now that he's not in the "club". I told him that no one is going to be mad at him for not having cancer! One less person in the world without cancer is a good thing! I just think it's been an emotional rollercoaster for him since the diagnosis, and this was just another thing to process. And he WAS diagnosed with cancer - it's not like he made it up!

He's feeling really good. The surgery was ten days ago. He is going back to work (an office job) full time tomorrow. He worked last Wednesday-Friday during the morning and came home and took a nap in the afternoon. He said it's still tender when he coughs or sneezes but otherwise he's feeling great. He even mentioned running yesterday and I said, "Oh no you don't - NO running until you go to the surgeon on Friday." I think he's going to listen to me - I hope he is anyway!

Thanks again for all of your support!

Lyla

Comments

  • pjune127
    pjune127 Member Posts: 127
    #2
    Seriously?
    Lyla, anyone who is angry that he did not have cancer is NOT a friend. I think he is incredibly lucky and I am delighted for him. If anyone thinks any other way, then they are less than human!

    Tell him congratulations from me and I would assume EVERYONE else here on this board!!

    God bless.

    Paula
  • angec
    angec Member Posts: 924 Member
    #3
    pjune127 said:

    Seriously?
    Lyla, anyone who is angry that he did not have cancer is NOT a friend. I think he is incredibly lucky and I am delighted for him. If anyone thinks any other way, then they are less than human!

    Tell him congratulations from me and I would assume EVERYONE else here on this board!!

    God bless.

    Paula

    Great news!
    That is really great news! What a terrific outcome!!! Paula is right, I am sure everyone feels the same!
  • icemantoo
    icemantoo Member Posts: 3,361 Member
    #4
    pjune127 said:

    Seriously?
    Lyla, anyone who is angry that he did not have cancer is NOT a friend. I think he is incredibly lucky and I am delighted for him. If anyone thinks any other way, then they are less than human!

    Tell him congratulations from me and I would assume EVERYONE else here on this board!!

    God bless.

    Paula

    Honorary Membershp
    Lyla,


    I think your husband deserves honorary membership for having the RCC surgery. At least he went thru the initiation. While not having Cancer is a good thing I hope his experience does not disuade others from having this necessary surgery.

    Icemantoo
  • Texas_wedge
    Texas_wedge Member Posts: 2,798
    #5
    icemantoo said:

    Honorary Membershp
    Lyla,


    I think your husband deserves honorary membership for having the RCC surgery. At least he went thru the initiation. While not having Cancer is a good thing I hope his experience does not disuade others from having this necessary surgery.

    Icemantoo

    Honorary Membership
    I'd like to endorse all of the above posts. I think Lyla's analysis is right on the money, right down to no running before next consultation - the caution is nothing to do with the (non)cancer but all to do with the surgery. It would be a shame to turn wonderful news into something less by doing damage before proper recovery from the surgery.

    I'll second iceman's nomination for honorary membership and I hope you'll come back, at least to confirm his full recovery which will, as Paula and Angie have said, delight us all.

    I think it's very much to his credit that your Husband has responded in the way he has and it could have been a message for the survivor guilt thread! Tell him that his outcome is cause only for gratitude and unalloyed joy, with no room for guilt, just so long as exuberance doesn't lull him into doing too much too soon after the surgery.
  • foxhd
    foxhd Member Posts: 3,181 Member
    #6
    Texas_wedge said:

    Honorary Membership
    I'd like to endorse all of the above posts. I think Lyla's analysis is right on the money, right down to no running before next consultation - the caution is nothing to do with the (non)cancer but all to do with the surgery. It would be a shame to turn wonderful news into something less by doing damage before proper recovery from the surgery.

    I'll second iceman's nomination for honorary membership and I hope you'll come back, at least to confirm his full recovery which will, as Paula and Angie have said, delight us all.

    I think it's very much to his credit that your Husband has responded in the way he has and it could have been a message for the survivor guilt thread! Tell him that his outcome is cause only for gratitude and unalloyed joy, with no room for guilt, just so long as exuberance doesn't lull him into doing too much too soon after the surgery.

    Soooo cool
    What awesome news! What a great report! Ready for work and ready to run. Tough man. Besides, that is the best survivors guilt to have. "What? me worry?" Still a life changing event I'm sure.
  • garym
    garym Member Posts: 1,647
    #7
    Texas_wedge said:

    Honorary Membership
    I'd like to endorse all of the above posts. I think Lyla's analysis is right on the money, right down to no running before next consultation - the caution is nothing to do with the (non)cancer but all to do with the surgery. It would be a shame to turn wonderful news into something less by doing damage before proper recovery from the surgery.

    I'll second iceman's nomination for honorary membership and I hope you'll come back, at least to confirm his full recovery which will, as Paula and Angie have said, delight us all.

    I think it's very much to his credit that your Husband has responded in the way he has and it could have been a message for the survivor guilt thread! Tell him that his outcome is cause only for gratitude and unalloyed joy, with no room for guilt, just so long as exuberance doesn't lull him into doing too much too soon after the surgery.

    Honorary Membership...
    Lyla,

    Honorary my butt!!! He's a full fledged member in my book, went through the surgery and emotions, just got a different kind of NED, CONGRATULATIONS btw. Totally agree with Paula, anyone that is not thrilled with this news, regardless of their personal situation, is NOT a friend. Survivors guilt is very real, don't be afraid to seek professional help if it persists. Tell your hubby to stick with walking for a little while yet, he has many decades left for running.

    Very happy for you,

    Gary
  • Texas_wedge
    Texas_wedge Member Posts: 2,798
    #8
    garym said:

    Honorary Membership...
    Lyla,

    Honorary my butt!!! He's a full fledged member in my book, went through the surgery and emotions, just got a different kind of NED, CONGRATULATIONS btw. Totally agree with Paula, anyone that is not thrilled with this news, regardless of their personal situation, is NOT a friend. Survivors guilt is very real, don't be afraid to seek professional help if it persists. Tell your hubby to stick with walking for a little while yet, he has many decades left for running.

    Very happy for you,

    Gary

    Honorary Membership
    Good points Gary.

    The comparisons among different tumour types are enlightening. For instance, chRCC seems to display similarities to oncocytomas and to share with them having less of a proclivity for metastasising. Sarcomatoid tumours, per contra, are so named because of the histological resemblance to sarcomas and share with those lesions both the tendency to remain localised rather than to be disseminated via the ciculatory systems and greater susceptibility to attack with chemo drugs (and, perhaps significantly, some of the same meds.).

    Having sarcomatoid chromophobe RCC pathology myself, I don't know which direction to look in! However, since both categories seem predisposed to propagate regionally rather than to spawn distant mets, maybe it's no surprise that I appeared to be non-metastatic at dx and to be now (albeit disconcertingly rapidly) displaying only localised mets. I'll see this picture tested on Thursday, when I hope it won't turn out to be a fake, with a combo PET/CT scan which will take a few hours but be reported on quite quickly, with a view to determining how many different things we may elect to have cut out of me in the next few weeks.
  • garym
    garym Member Posts: 1,647
    #9
    Texas_wedge said:

    Honorary Membership
    Good points Gary.

    The comparisons among different tumour types are enlightening. For instance, chRCC seems to display similarities to oncocytomas and to share with them having less of a proclivity for metastasising. Sarcomatoid tumours, per contra, are so named because of the histological resemblance to sarcomas and share with those lesions both the tendency to remain localised rather than to be disseminated via the ciculatory systems and greater susceptibility to attack with chemo drugs (and, perhaps significantly, some of the same meds.).

    Having sarcomatoid chromophobe RCC pathology myself, I don't know which direction to look in! However, since both categories seem predisposed to propagate regionally rather than to spawn distant mets, maybe it's no surprise that I appeared to be non-metastatic at dx and to be now (albeit disconcertingly rapidly) displaying only localised mets. I'll see this picture tested on Thursday, when I hope it won't turn out to be a fake, with a combo PET/CT scan which will take a few hours but be reported on quite quickly, with a view to determining how many different things we may elect to have cut out of me in the next few weeks.

    Very interesting...
    T,

    I am amazed by the differences you refer to between the types and proclivities of these tumors, it almost seems at times that cancer is fighting as hard to survive as we are. Like many here, I am sure, I await your results as though you are my own blood.

    Good luck and Godspeed,

    Gary
  • Texas_wedge
    Texas_wedge Member Posts: 2,798
    #10
    garym said:

    Very interesting...
    T,

    I am amazed by the differences you refer to between the types and proclivities of these tumors, it almost seems at times that cancer is fighting as hard to survive as we are. Like many here, I am sure, I await your results as though you are my own blood.

    Good luck and Godspeed,

    Gary

    Survival
    I don't know whether you've looked at The Emperor of All Maladies, Gary. The author, who is an astoundingly brilliant man, is too much the scientist to be seduced into excessively teleological explanation and yet he talks of his book as a biography of cancer and says he can't help thinking of it as having personality, so the attribution of an almost conscious determination to survive doesn't seem as far-fetched as one might at first suppose. [By the way, thanks for your heart-warming good wishes.]

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