Update on diagnosis following surgery

Maite 11 months ago

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Whew am I glad I had this lesion removed when I did!

I have been under active surveillance for two years. Constantly showing as a 2.7cm on the regular scans. Hadn't changed at all in size or form in the scans.

I know that scans often cannot get the exact info as it can depend on things like angles etc. and invariably it seems that the final size when removed, tends to be bit bigger than what is seen on the scan. I also am not a gambler and having already had one cancer, I didn't fancy my chances of being in the 10-15% of people for whom a Bosniak 4 is benign.

So today I have unexpectedly (although admittedly it has been two weeks today already) received a letter from my consultant, the main body of it being:

"The analysis is now back from the laboratory after the operation to remove the lesion from your kidney. This has confirmed a small 3.3cm low grade ( grade 2) early stage pT1a clear cell renal cell carcinoma. This is the most common type of kidney cancer. There are no concerning features on the histological analysis, and it has been completely removed with clear surgical margins which is excellent news.

This puts you in the lowest group risk group with possible for ever having a recurrence you should consider this a curative treatment.

I hope you find this reassuring and we will be able to go through the details further when we meet up in the clinic in due course. We will still arrange some follow-up scans and I hope you are continuing to make a good recovery from surgery."...

The fact it was bigger than all the scans showed, and that it is a Grade 2 not a Grade 1, concerned me slightly, but everything else is indeed reassuring, and I feel very, very fortunate to have this result. It could have been an awful lot worse, and definitely would likely have been had I waited another six months/another year. I was always afraid that at my next scan, it would show it had grown. Well, it has indeed grown but would possibly have grown even more if I had waited longer.

Had this not been discovered by chance on a pre-op hysterectomy scan, I could have gone another ten years or more without symptoms, and then been knocked with something like total removal and worse once symptoms started to show.

Despite finding out it actually was cancer after all, I feel immense relief because his letter is so reassuring. They don't always say as bluntly as this that the treatment is curative (as, they cannot always be sure that it is) so that in itself is reassuring. Ok it may recur at some stage in my life but I still feel like I've dodged a bullet and I can now get on with my life. I am an advocate of Positive Thinking (although sometimes I don't always manage it) and apart from regular scans I can now forget about it and look ahead to the future, which I feel privileged to have been given potentially lots of.

I know so many people here are not as fortunate.

However, for those of you on a similar path as mine, I hope you too will have a great outcome. We are fortunate in that RCC is deemed to be a slow growing cancer, unlike most, so that gives us all a good chance, at pretty much any stage, and allows for delays in getting through the system, to be likely less harmful to us than they might be to someone with a different kind of cancer.

Wishing everyone a good day, a comfortable day, a positive day.

Maite 10 months ago in reply to Maite

Well, two good things: Work went well. I was given a chair but didn't have time to sit on it!! I did some of the things I would normally have done, just a bit more slowly and carrying a couple of small items at a time instead of a whole armful or boxful. I finally felt "human" again by getting back to work! - very glad I did do it now and didn't postpone it. It's really lifted my spirits! I came home and checked my incisions and decided to have a half hour on the bed to make up for the four hours on my feet! - but nothing seems any worse for the four hours at work, which is good.

The other thing is that when I went online this eve I found the awaited letter from my consultant. That was quite encouraging. He said (though I don't 'get' this, but he surely knows what he's talking about!) that the lowest incision often can take longer to heal than the others. He implied that it could take a few weeks or a couple of months. (From scratch, that would be, not from now) and feels that it is a reaction to the surgical glue (which I've been saying all along!!) and has cleared me for going back to work at the 6 weeks ie today, with the expected restrictions on heavy lifting and any other restrictions that I myself feel are sensible, for the next week or two.

He implied the follow-up will be a couple of weeks or so yet. He doesn't seem bothered about the slow-healing incision and mentioned he will review that at the follow-up. I shall still contact the GP next Tuesday for follow-up on this incision if I find the Trimovate hasn't done much by then - I was told one more week of it, yesterday. But I feel a lot more relaxed now about it all. It's been a long six weeks - last three weeks have been the worst in fact - but I feel very fortunate to have had this found early and to have had such a good outcome as a result.

Maite 3 months ago in reply to Maite

Update, received today a letter from my consultant following the first follow-up scan a couple weeks ago:

"The follow-up CT scan arranged after the operation to remove the small tumour from your kidney has been reported. Reassuringly it shows no evidence of recurrence or any other concerning features. I have requested a further follow-up scan for 12 months' time and will be in touch with the results."

I was a tiny bit anxious about this first scan and was immensely relieved to get this news today! A lovely surprise and bonus for the new year!!

I don't know if he will want to see me in person; I don't know what the procedure is from here but possibly it's literally just another scan in a year. I have been extremely fortunate, when others have not been. I have always believed that everything happens for a reason and sometimes we don't see that reason for a long time. I have had a lifetime of perfect health up until my first cancer at the age of 62. Perhaps this was a wake-up call for me to not sit on my laurels and assume that I would spend my whole life in complete health.

I wish all of you the best outcome for yourselves, too. It's so encouraging to have discovered that cancer in the 2000s is no longer the end of life but the beginning of new challenges and a new outlook on life, and that we are all so fortunate to be able to live with our cancers in the modern world, due to the wide variety of treatments and the amazing advances in medicine.

Mmum 3 months ago in reply to Maite

We love news like this.

Maite 3 months ago in reply to Mmum

Thank you, Mmum!

SteveL3d6af9 2 months ago in reply to Maite

That's great news!!

My wife Anne had her post-op baseline scan (full left nephrectomy/ adreno-wotyoucallit) a few weeks and that didn't find anything new,so that caused a few happy tears

Hope everybody here has a happy 2026

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