Our history so far

It all started in Nov 2003 when my husband was admitted to hospital and they discovered he had a 5cm mass in his right kidney. Within 3 weeks he had had a Radical Nephrectomy (removal of kidney) and it turned out that he had "Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma". As far as we knew all the cancer cells were contained within the kidney and they were 90% sure that none had escaped, so no further treatment was recommended, apart from regular scans. That was until in Jan 2007, when at a 5cm mass was discovered in his chest, just above the heart. In March 2007 he had a Thoracotomy (chest operation) to see if they could remove it, but they could only “de-mass” it as it was between the Aorta & left pulmonary artery. The biopsy results confirmed it was Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma (secondary kidney cancer). Another scan in May 2007 showed a couple of masses in his chest and a few small nodules in his lungs. He was prescribed “Sutent” which was refused by our PCT so he was given “Interferon Alpha” which he started self injecting in June 2007. This initially worked, reducing the masses and keeping them stable for 18 months, until Feb 2009 when a scan showed that they had started growing again, and there were new nodules in both lungs. His consultant reapplied for “Sutent” which again was refused by our PCT. So we investigated drug trials, one of which was “high dose Interlukin 2” which is available in Manchester and discovered that Colin is an ideal candidate for this, but it is not a very nice treatment. Then in March 2009 the PCT agreed to fund “Sutent” for Colin, which is brilliant news. We have decided to go for the “IL2” treatment in Manchester first and keep the option of “Sutent” available for use if he doesn’t respond very well to the “IL2”.