Shocked!
My dad's tumor markers for colon and pancreas cancer have always been high but subsequent CT scans, ultrasounds, upper and lower scopes, and biopsy had shown no indication of cancerous cells. By sheer coincidence, it was one of these scans/ultrasounds that picked up sign of kidney cyst. So our family are shocked to learn that the biopsy on the kidney removed during the recent surgery revealed some cancerous cells. Not only that, those cells originated elsewhere i.e. they were metastasised from another part of the body.
According a friend who is a doctor, he said that it's rare for cancer cells to spread to kidney. I later read an abstract of a research paper (found in Pubmed) stating, "Although the frequency of metastases to the kidney in cancer patients is 7-13% in large autopsy series, incidental discovery of a renal metastasis as the first manifestation of a primary tumor is a very rare event."
One one hand, it is bad luck for my dad to get such cancer (because now need to hunt for the primary site!) but on the other hand it's fortunate that it shows up in the kidney (given how rare it is!) as otherwise we wouldn't have known there's cancer elsewhere.
So now, the specialists suspect colon or pancreas as the primary site and this is further supported by my dad's family history. We'll be meeting the respective specialist soon (expecting long waiting time!) and hopefully they'll push for urgent CT scans a.s.a.p. Hopefully they can pinpoint the primary site very soon and administer successful treatment.
According a friend who is a doctor, he said that it's rare for cancer cells to spread to kidney. I later read an abstract of a research paper (found in Pubmed) stating, "Although the frequency of metastases to the kidney in cancer patients is 7-13% in large autopsy series, incidental discovery of a renal metastasis as the first manifestation of a primary tumor is a very rare event."
One one hand, it is bad luck for my dad to get such cancer (because now need to hunt for the primary site!) but on the other hand it's fortunate that it shows up in the kidney (given how rare it is!) as otherwise we wouldn't have known there's cancer elsewhere.
So now, the specialists suspect colon or pancreas as the primary site and this is further supported by my dad's family history. We'll be meeting the respective specialist soon (expecting long waiting time!) and hopefully they'll push for urgent CT scans a.s.a.p. Hopefully they can pinpoint the primary site very soon and administer successful treatment.
Comments
Very much so. More update soon.