How quick is surgery after discovery of rcc ?

Pulled into Nazareth, I was feeling 'bout half past dead.

Finding out that you have a kidney tumor and that it can kill you is as scarey as it gets. Then to find out that it has to be removed is actually an easy thing to accept. Obviously the sooner the better. Then they say they'll do it in 3 months! YIKES!! The textbook stress producer that almost drives you insane. Believe me I sympathize.

But the wait itself can be a good thing. Many times a growing tumor, and/or mets can be best treated with a tki as an antiangiogenic. This makes removing a controllled tumor more favorable somewhere down the road.

 The same thing goes with starting opdivo. With multiple mets, they don't usually remove them all during surgery. But if your immune system can first eliminate multiple tumor sites, the surgeon can focus on the primary and larger tumors.

Both reasons for a delay of surgey is a great approach. It didn't use to be an option. It makes a lot of sense but almost everyone just wants it out.

at the appointment when I was told it was 99.9% certain to be cancer, at a bit over 12 cm .. they wanted to begin pre surgery tests and to schedule the surgery.  It is a University hospital, so every resident and fellow and probably the janitors came in to look at the ultrasound, and they all go" WOW that's a big one"  like they all could hardly wait.  My husband was supposed to be in the truck with his fishing buddies leaving for Lake Shasta while we were in the office... and so, since he heard it was cancer, and that they were going to take it out, could they do it in 10 days when he got back from fishing.  And off he ran down the hallway to get into the truck.  That was fine with me, I spent the next 5 hours getting tests done, signing paperwork for everybody and their foundations to claim a hunk of the tumor for their research, came home, told my grown kids, and sat for 10 days.  Then they took it out. "Got it all" wam bam, thank you Mam.  I only knew I  had cancer for ten days ... felt like I had been side swiped by a city bus... BAAM  you have cancer, turns me sideways, then "we got it all, BAAM now I don't.  I was bewildered, numb, and dumb.  and stayed that way.  They took a chest x-ray 6 months later, and that was fine.  And scheduled another check up for a year later.  At the 14 month mark, I was back with the surgical team for removal of a brain tumor.  THEN as I was recovering, I found both this site, and Smart Patients.  NOW I am getting educated.. more every day.

Be viligent, get well informed, know the protocal for Kidney Cancer and staging, and you will be well involved in your health.

Hope my story gave you a bit of a laugh.  My husband does love his fishing, and after 51 years with this man, I handle him well.

Pam