Possible Kidney Cancer?

[Alphonsus]

My dad has kidney stones and when they took an x-ray they found a mass on his left kidney, he went in for a CT scan and we haven't received the results yet i am just wondering if what they found on his kidney could be cancer because they think it is too big to be just another kidney stone....also how serious is kidney cancer...i'm not stupid i know no kind of cancer is good but some types are better than others. please help thanks

[absalon73]

I'm sorry you're worried. It could really be anything though - an abscess, for example.

People can live a full life with just one kidney, so if your father loses a kidney, that would be okay.

[farand]

Renal carcinomas are not bad if you catch them early enough

to remove them surgically.
If they are beyond surgical resection,

renal carcinomas are very bad news because none of our 100 plus

different chemotherapy treatments work very well if at all

against advanced kidney cancers.

- - - -

Karina is wrong about surgeons spreading renal carcinomas at the time of surgery.

That is an old wives' tale.
If it has spread it was spread long before surgery.

Remember that a billion cancer cells makes a mass of 1cm - roughly the size

of a marble.
A million cancer cells is so small that a surgeon cannot see it

and it won't show up on any scans.
People forget that cancers start out as

a microscopic disease and stay microscopic sometimes for years before

they grow large enough to be seen on scans.
If they are symptomatic,

cancers have progressed for a very long time.
Cancer symptoms

are very bad news 'IF' the symptoms are actually caused by the malignancy.

Symptoms often mean the disease is far advanced.
Those "Seven Warning Signals"

for cancer are essentially useless.
Only the one about a skin lesion is useful.

[Pierce]

Yes with one kidney a person can live. but operation is needed urgently if it is a cancer so that it will not spread to other part of the body. When Doctor does the biopsy then there is a chance of spreading of cancer cells. So you need to consult with good doctors.