Nephrectomy and adrenalectomy next week

Hi BeefyMoo,

My name is Gail and I’m one of the cancer information nurses on the Macmillan Support Line.

It sounds as though you’re going through such a difficult time after your diagnosis of Kidney Cancer. I’m glad you’ve reached out for more information as it’s natural to have questions after your initial appointment. It’s a lot of information to take in at once.

It’s good to hear the surgeon appears relaxed and the doctors have a treatment plan in place. Although it can help to look at reputable websites, you’ll find it covers general information only and each persons’ cancer diagnosis is individual to them. After reading, it can help to write down any questions and contact your clinical nurse specialist (CNS) to discuss these, as they can offer further clarity about your specific diagnosis and treatment plan. Your CNS and surgeon are both part of your Multidisciplinary team (MDT).

If you don’t have the contact details of your CNS, you can call the hospital switchboard and ask to be put through to your consultant’s secretary. They can then let you know the name and contact details of your allocated CNS. When there’s uncertainty about your diagnosis, it’s important to get in touch, as waiting until your next hospital appointment when you have unanswered questions can add to your concerns.

Although we do not have access to your medical records, we’re happy to offer general information which can sometimes help.

When a type of cancer has moved outside the primary affected organ, it’s classically known as stage 4, however as your consultant is surgically removing all the affected areas, the information you read may not offer enough information about your specific diagnosis.

In many cases stage 4 cancers cannot be surgically removed and that’s why your team are best to offer more clarity regarding your diagnosis and prognosis. Your team can clarify if their aim is to treat with a curative intent. General information about stage 4 cancers mainly covers situations that cannot be treated with curative intent. This may be adding further confusion at an already difficult time and so, seeking clarity from your team is important.

Statistics can be helpful but it’s also important to remember that it can take many years to gather these figures and then publish them. There are continuous developments in cancer treatments and the published statistics may not cover these. For this reason, we can’t always rely solely on the published numbers.

When a cancer is surgically removed, the consultant will always test the nearby lymph nodes. The Lymph nodes are like the body’s motorway for all cells (good and bad) to move round the body. If this biopsy is positive of cancer cells, it doesn’t definitively mean that the cancer cells will move to another organ.

Our own immune system may destroy them before this happens, but it is possible for these primary kidney cancer cells to pocket in another organ in the future. If we find out the lymph nodes are positive for cancer cells, surgery on it’s own may not be enough as an effective treatment option. This is when systemic treatments are considered as well as surgery. The surgery removes the tumour, and systemic medicines go through the blood stream destroying cancer cells that may be in the blood stream.

Our evidence-based research allows us to determine which medicines are most effective against specific cancer types. Some Immunotherapies have shown to be effective for Kidney Cancer. Each cancer is different, but this treatment is to attempt to destroy the cancer cells before they get an opportunity to move to another organ.

I realise that this is a lot of information to take in. If it would help to talk things through, please don’t hesitate to give us a call on the support line.

Our emotional support offers may also help at this very challenging time.   

Take care,

Sf/

Thank you so much Gail for all your advice and information, I'm very grateful.

All the best,
Geoff.

Hi Beefymoo,

Thank you for your response and I’m glad to hear the information helped.

Your initial enquiry included specific questions about metabolic screening tests and TKI but rather than add too much information at once, I felt it would be most beneficial to focus on your diagnosis.

I could hear your concerns as the reading material didn’t quite reflect the information you had been given about your personal diagnosis.

You’ll find that a range of blood tests are carried out before, during and after anyone is diagnosed with cancer. These results offer great insight into a person’s overall health. They can show how our major organs are functioning and this is essential before considering an appropriate treatment plan.

Some specific tests can also show more detailed information about cancer cells. Your team may have mentioned this because they intend to carry out metabolic profiling of your kidney cancer cells.

These tests are not carried out for every cancer type but continuous research in this field is advancing, and medical professionals are able to understand some cancer cells better.

Metabolic profiling of kidney cancer cells can help predict the cancer's behaviour, such as what factors help or prevent the cells grow and its responsiveness to therapy.

You also asked about TCI. Abbreviations can be difficult when trying to offer insight, but I wonder if it could be short for Triple resonance cryoprobe, which is used in Cryotherapy. 

Your nurse specialist will be able to go over this information in more detail and answer any further questions you may have. I hope you find this information useful.  If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to get back in touch.

Best Wishes,

KH/

Hi again,

You've given me such a lot of very helpful information that's really helping me to understand more about everything to do with my cancer. I've already re-read all you've written several times.

Thank you SO much, I'm ever so grateful.