RCC | No Symptoms

Very similar other than mine was a bit bigger. Took one look at the CT and the doctor said this is almost always RCC. I said do you need a biopsy to confirm?? He was so confident and said that it was not even worth it. I cannot remember if he said 90% or 95% confident it was RCC, but it was in that range. Almost like when they see these they know what they are. Ended up removing my entire left kidney and was considered stage 1 at that time.

Mine was smaller than yours, but was discovered only because I had microscopic traces of blood in my urine during a routine physical. Primary doc sent me for a CT thinking it was a stone. No stone, but a 1.4cm lesion on might right kidney. I got referred to a urologic oncologist at Stanford (thank God because the other insurance choices were less than optimal, and that’s being nice). The UO at Stanford was incredible, easily the best doc I ever had. He discussed what the CT showed and recommended active surveillance because there are times when things that small turn out to be benign. 2-1/2 years late, a 6 month ultrasound determine it had grown a little so he discussed options for removal, either ablation or surgery. He said surgery was a better option as in cases like mine, the surgery is 99+% curative. So we opted for that. He was not a surgeon, so he got me a Stanford surgeon that looked like he had just graduated…..high school (damn I’m old). But the guy was fantastic. He even has a YouTube video discussing the procedure. From admission to release, I was in for a total of 25-1/2 hours. It was graded at 1.

Mine was 7 cm exactly in the longest dimension, so still just barely stage 1. I had no idea it was there, and I was feeling the best I had in years. From what I've heard and read, most kidney cancers are asymptomatic and are found when getting scanned for something else. I didn't have a biopsy because the urology surgeon said it was very likely cancer at that size, and it needed to come out anyway. I'm doing fine four years later.