Stage 1a - renal cancer

Hi,

Firstly sorry that you're stuck here, the waiting and not knowing and worrying can be really rubbish.

My understanding is that exophytic tumours can be lower risk to remove as the risk of damaging the internal structures in the kidney is a bit lower than if the tumour is growing internally. It's definitely one to ask your surgeon when you see them.

Assuming the MRI also points to malignancy, then options you may be offered might be a biopsy, surgery to remove it, or continuing active surveillance. From reading other people's stories it seems to vary by hospital as to what you are offered. 

I was only offered surgery, but that suited me as I'm pretty young, otherwise healthy, and was desperate to get it out of me!

When is your MRI and appointment, have you got long to wait?

Thank you for your message! The MRI is booked for next weekend so that's great! I am very eager to find out more. Although it's highly likely I haven't been told it is cancer definitely - so there's an element of doubt still. I guess this is the case with a lot of small renal tumours if they don't biopsy since they only really know after the surgery? Mine is enhancing and is mixed density. No fat. 

How are you doing now? :) 

Good luck with the MRI, they can feel a bit claustrophobic so be prepared to stare at a piece of metal that's 20cm in front of your face for half an hour!!

The official stats are that around 20% of small, unbiopsied tumours will end up being non-cancerous once taken out and looked at. My surgeon quoted me a 5-10% chance that it wasn't cancerous after they'd reviewed my scans. Despite all that it still came as a bit of a shock to come back as cancer, and the mental recovery is as tough as the physical!