Hello

Hi Lamplight, the size of 7.4 cm is quite common for kidney cancer. If there are no signs of spread in your CT scan it means that your cancer is an early stage T2.

Hello Lamplight1928

According to some recent posts on here, the sizing isn't always accurate. It depends on whether you have had an ultrasound, or Ct with or without contrast dye. One person who had surgery, the tumour was found to be much smaller than they anticipated, when it was removed and sent for biopsy.

The size of the tumour is not as important as whether it has spread into surrounding tissue or other organs. If it is contained within the kidney, then surgery is usually the answer.

I wish you well, and a speedy recovery from your operation!

Candysmum

• Thankyou thats put my mind at rest

Thankyou thats put my mind at rest

Ive had a ct scan with contrast and 5hey sized it at 7.4cm they said they didnt think it had gone anywhere else and a nephrectomy wiuld be best ..keyhole

Mine is 16cm x 10cm x 12cm - that's large. And amazingly not spread to other organs yet.

All being well it will be removed tomorrow (open radical nephrectomy) and will wait then for the biopsy results.

Good you will have keyhole as it will be a quicker recovery. All the best :)

Thankyou....all the best for tomorrow

Lamplight1928 said:

Does anybody know if the sizing done is accurate

Hi - I asked my onco how they did the sizing and how did they ensure the consistency of the measurements for repeated scans.  For example, using scans to measure response to treatment, one scan may measure vertically, the next scan at an angle, therefore reported size reduction may be a false positive.  Perhaps they just measured a smaller cross section!

My onco assured me there was a method to it, it wasn't random, but it was radiology protocol and he didn't know specifics.  A year later I'm talking to my other oncologist.  I'm having scans regularly at 2 month frequency and every month the size is going down by 1mm.   He mentions how there is a margin of error to the scans, and 1mm is within accuracy tolerance, and they might not be measuring in exactly the same place.  

Mine was 5.9cm and described as "large" but there's members here who have reported sizes of 10cm.   I don't think the size matters.  What matters is that it's been found and you're on a pathway to better.  Even better if it's not spread, but even if it has (mine had) there's treatment to address.  

Out of curiosity, because my tumor is 5cm and classified as low grade. Was your confined to the kidney? Was it deemed aggressive? I have only had my lower lungs scanned so far and am worried about spread.

Mine had already spread to the lungs on discovery/diagnosis.   We never had a discussion about aggressive or not.  I understood it not to be aggressive. Probably something I read about clear cell RCC.  I was talking to my oncologist about the "next drugs" when this one stopped working.  He mentionned a TKI (tivozanib) which are typically given to treat aggressive cancers.  When I questioned that ("aren't they for aggressive cancers?" he explained why they would be given to non-aggressive cancers as well.  He didn't contradict my categorisation.  

From my conversation with my urologist on diagnosis day, I think when cancer spreads to the lungs it impacts the peripheral areas first.  My urologist showed me this on the scan and mentioned it as a positive.