Got ultrasound results

[MinivanMom]

Are kidney cysts cancer?

[Hidden]

No they are not cancer. However I was diagnosed with a kidney cyst and it turned out to be a benign tumour that was breaking through the covering of the kidney. I had a right open partial nephrectomy to get rid of the tumour.

[Woven]

What exactly does the report say? Simple renal cysts are just fluid filled.. and are not cancer nor ever will be. There are more complex cysts that they tend to want to watch every 6 months to a year or will suggest a CT or MRI after ultrasound to get a better look..Check out the bosniak scale - google it. But even if it was a tumor those can be benign..to or very wimpy indolent type cancer..that is very slow growing. Even the worse kind of cancerous tumor if caught early before any metastasizing has 90+% cure rate..

[RickHow in reply to Woven]

Correct. I had a tiny tumor in the center of my left kidney. Due to its location it could not be removed, the entire kidney had to go. I was told after that the tumor was tested. It was cancer. It was stage 1, grade 1 and totally encapsulated. My doctor and oncologist said I had less than a 2% chance that it had spread to another part of my body. That was July of 2017. In February of 2019 I was diagnosed with renal cancer that had spread to my bones. I had two spots in my lower pelvis, 2 in my upper pelvis, a large spot in my upper femur and hip area, and two of my lower spine vertebrae were so eaten away I had to have emergency spinal fusion surgery. I am obviously now stage 4. There are no chemotherapy solutions for metastasized renal cancer. There are limited immunotherapy treatments which can extend your life for 1 to 3 years but eventually stop working. I am on one called Keytruda. It is an IV that is given every 3 weeks. At the cost of $43,000 each treatment!!!! There are also pill therapies that can be tried which are life extenders. The average cost of these is between $9000 and 14000 per month. I also had my hip replaced to eliminate the tumor in the femur. I have taken radiation therapy to some of the other spots, to reduce discomfort, but it does NOT kill the tumor as many falsely think possible of radiation. All this has happened since early this year. My point? When you hear of low possibilities or cancer return, remember low is not zero. Someone has to be part of the 2% or 10%. When you are in that lower percent group doctors tend to do very limited follow up testing (ultrasound, bone scans, etc.). Insist on more testing. I often think, if only my doctors had, say every 3 months, had done a simple bone scan for a year or so, we would have found that first "spot", before it became many, and perhaps had surgery to remove it before it became many,

[Woven in reply to RickHow]

Really sorry to hear this. What size was your tumor when they found it? Was it found on ultrasound first as a tumor or complex cyst or some other scan? Was it an incidental find or did you have symptoms?

[RickHow in reply to Woven]

My tumor was 3cm. It was found incidentally. I had no symptoms. It was found with a CT scan. I had fallen during a walk. My hip bothered me. It was on a weekend. So I went to the emergency room to have it checked. They did Xray and saw nothing, but to be safe they did a CT scan. The doctor got the results and said to me about the huge cyst on my right kidney. That is looked to be clear but I ought to see a urologist to have it checked. NOT A WORD about the cancer tumor on left kidney. Well to see the urologist I had to see my primary care for a referral. That took 2 weeks for an appointment. He sent me for ultrasound. He got results and I had another appointment (this took another 2 weeks). So far a month has passed. To see the urologist (we only have 2 in our area) I had to wait. He looked at the ultrasound my primary care had sent him, said it looked to be a clear cyst and likely so is the one on my left kidney. So come to see him in 3 months. Finally (this is now 4 months after emergency room) I saw him. He looked again and said the huge cyst is clear. The other is cancer and must come out (same guy who called me earlier and said it was benign!!). He was going on vacation for 2 weeks and would take out the kidney upon his return.. I know it is speculation but I can't help wondering. If upon discovery of a growth in the emergency room, if so many weeks had not passed until removal, would we have caught it before it spread.