I had left kidney removed at Christmas and now have consented to immunotherapy. It was a rare form but has been removed with kidney and adrenal gland. I am struggling to weigh up pros and cons of treatment. Can you help please?
I had left kidney removed at Christmas and now have consented to immunotherapy. It was a rare form but has been removed with kidney and adrenal gland. I am struggling to weigh up pros and cons of treatment. Can you help please?
Hi Crybaby
Thank you for getting in touch with us. My name is Lynsay, and I am one of the cancer information nurses with Macmillan Cancer Support. Welcome to the online community.
I hope you have recovered well following your surgery at Christmas.
Making treatment decisions can be challenging, I am more than happy to go through some pro’s and con’s with you, but it can actually help quite a bit to talk these through too. Please feel free to contact us on the support line if it would help to speak with one of us and chat this through.
It can be helpful to remember that there is no right or wrong decision. The decision that you make will be the right decision for you at this time.
It is only very recently that an option for further treatment after surgery (this is known as adjuvant treatment) has been available for Kidney cancer. The intent of this immunotherapy treatment is to reduce the risk of the kidney cancer returning after surgery.
The potential benefit of this treatment then needs to be weighed against the potential side affects you may experience with this treatment. The information I have seen relating to adjuvant immunotherapy for kidney cancer has related to Pembrolizumab.
Like many treatments, pembrolizumab has a long list of potential side effects. This can be very daunting, especially when you are likely feeling well at the moment. It can be hard to take on a treatment that may impact how you are currently feeling for a potential future benefit.
However, it is important to remember that even though there are lots of potential side effects listed, no one gets all of the side effects listed. Generally speaking, immunotherapy treatment is well tolerated, and side effects are generally very manageable. And while this treatment cannot offer a guarantee that the cancer won’t return, it can reduce the risk of this happening.
It may be helpful if your treatment team were able to give you an idea of what they felt your risk of recurrence may be, this again can only be estimated but relates to the stage of the kidney cancer when it was diagnosed.
Sometimes they are able to estimate if someone is at low, intermediate, or a higher risk of recurrence. Knowing this can indicate how much potential benefit you would have from further treatment with more benefit associated with a higher risk of recurrence.
I hope this information is helpful, but please feel free to contact us again if it would help to talk this through or if there is any other information we could provide.
All the very best,
Lynsay, Cancer Information Nurse Specialist
You can also speak with the Macmillan Support Line team of experts. Phone free on 0808 808 0000 (7 days a week, 8am-8pm) or send us an email.
Ref:TT
