Interleukin

hello, I've been here a couple times before and everyone has been so supportive.  My husband is 43 and and in 2005 was diagnosed with RCC he had his right kidney taken out and everything has been going fine until about 6 months ago.  They found 2 nodules in his left lung and did a needle biopsy. They came back and said it was not cancer.  So we went to have his CT scan and back to the DR. and the suckers have doubled in size they are now saying it looks the the RCC has moved to the lung.  They(dr.) have told us about this drug called Interluekin and because of his age he would need to take the drug and have surgery.  The Dr. has told my husband all of the sideeffects and how the drug works and well to be honest he has scared the heck out of us.  Has anyone been on Interleukin  and if you have can you share with us how it worked for you and what you went  through and were you able to work.  I have many questions and any answers would be greatly appreciated.

 The Wife of a fighter

Robyn

Interleukin is his best chance for cure, I have known people who have had complete responses to the treatment, while the side effects are intense they are contained in the hospital and I think they have little memory of everything. There is a great online list of over 1500 kidney cancer patients and caregivers you can find us at www.acor.org then looking for the kidney mailing list under the letter K. You will get dozens of people letting you know their experiences.  Also go to the following website www.cancerguide.org

Hang in there

Hello, my husband has advanced RCC and IL-2 (short for high dosage interleukin) was his first therapy.  We decided to try it because it was his best choice for a cure.  Although he tolerated 26 out of the 28 doses, the treatment was unsuccessful in shrinking his tumors.  Keep in mind, there is only a 15% response rate for a complete durable remission with this treatment.  But it's your best shot at getting cured.  In response to whether or not he'll be able to work, I would plan on taking a month off.  We brought the laptop to the hospital for him to attempt to stay connected with work, but after two days, he was too weak to do anything.  The treatment is very toxic and rough, but once the treatment stops, you recover in a few days.  I stayed with my husband every minute, even staying overnight in his room, and that was helpful.  Bring a supply of movies and a DVD player to pass the time - he will be out of it for the most part.  Hang in there and I pray you get a response.   If you do, the doctors will probably want to continue with two or three more cycles, if you can handle it.