Central Necrosis

My Sister was diagnosed with Stage 4 RCC August 23, 2007. She has finished two cycles of Sutent and was sent for Cat Scan. This Cat Scan reads almost identical to her first one that was done in August. The major difference is, in her lungs "many of the larger metastatic foci have central necrosis." The large mass on her right kidney, is centrally necrotic. And a lesion on her lower lumbar spine in centrally necrotic.

 Can someone tell me what "centrally necrotic" or central necrosis means? Is this a positive or negative diagnosis?

 Thanks, Sis 

Hi Sis,

Necrosis is death of cells. I was diagnosed in Nov. '05 with squamous cell carcinoma of the right tonsil. The subsequent CT scan showed 4 lymph nodes in my neck with necrotic centers. The tumor board considered these to be cancerous even though they didn't light up a PET. That made me a Stage IV. It was explained to me that a necrotic center is usually cancer so they had to treat it as though it was definitely malignant. This is just my experience with central necrosis. I hope it is better for your sister.

Good luck!

Joe