Minimally Complex Renal Cyst in rt Kidney

Jeff K said:

Thanks for your feedback - just what I was looking for
I have seen 3 separate urologists within the hospital over the last 6 years. Two new ones just recently after the cyst had grown more than I was prepared for. However, in speaking with them, they continue to say they believe it looks benign and that cysts in the kidneys are very common. They also tell me that since kidney cancer is a slow growing cancer, if the cyst changes during my next ultrasound (1 year from now), they can always perform the surgery at that time and the risk that something would have spread is very low.

It is really not recommended to take a needle biopsy of kidney cysts as the risk of "seeding" the cancer (if it is there in the first place) is too high. They typically can't tell with 100% certainty unless they take the whole cyst out and test it.

Sounds like you are in the same boat as me with your cysts. It seems to always be in the back of my mind that I could have cancer that I could "get rid of" with an operation now. However, the surgical risk is one that I don't want to over look either (especially if it turned out benign and I went ahead with a partial nephrectormy that I didn't need).

Any other thoughts on this decision would be appreciated.

Hi, I'm really confused and thinking someone on this site may have experienced something similar and or have some suggestions. About a year ago I went to the doctor because I thought I had yet another UTI turned kidney infection. I was having right flank pain but not any of the other symptoms of a UTI (of which I've had many). She put me on antibiotics, just in case, and ordered some routine blood work. The blood work came back with elevated liver enzymes so she sent me for an ultrasound of my liver and the ultrasound tech noted a 2.3cm mass on my right kidney. I was then sent for an MRI (and subsequently a CAT scan). The scans noted that I had cortical scarring and lobulation of both kidneys but no mass. Obviously very relieved I reutrned to my normal pre-cancer scare life and seemed to be doing okay despite continued dull pain in my right flank. After about six months I finally returned to my doctor for a routine med update and mentioned that I continued to have the right flank pain. I questioned if there could be something else causing it. The pain is not as bad as I would imagine kidney stones to be but it, just as many have described on here, a dull pain, almost a burning in my ride side sometimes stretching into my front and or back rib area. This pain keeps me sitting very upright as any kind of slumping causes definite discomfort. The doc sent me to another ultrasound which noted specifically no renal scarring but mild renal pelviectasis in the right kidney. The doctor advised that it could be some kind of blockage or an infection and, once again, put me on antibiotics and did some blood work. The blood work came back with some issues of elevated renan acitivity levels and a low aldosterone ratio which she said could indicate some renal insufficiency. She then recommended that I see a nephrologist. I recently went to the nephrologist who referred me for a doppler ultrasound which came back showing a simple cyst in my right kidney. He assured me that the pain in my flank is not related to the cyst as it is so small it would be asymptomatic. So at this point, after a year of so many different diagnosis, I no longer know what to believe. I continue to have discomfort in my side and, everytime I ask what else it might be, I am sent for more testing for my kidneys and then sent home. In looking online I have found plenty of people who's mass was missed on an ulatrasound but found on an MRI/CAT but none, so far, who's mass was found on an ultrasound and missed on an MRI/CAT. I feel fairly confident that a mass would have been discovered by this time but do have some minor fears that this cyst they are now seeing could be the mass they saw a year ago in a different form. Has anyone ever experienced any thing similar or have any suggestions on what it might be? Just a side not, my liver enzyemes continue to rise despite the fact that I don't drink and am not signficantly overweight so I am also being sent to a hepatologist.