On 2/8/2008 YOUNGMAN wrote:
Hello, i have not been on here before, but my stepdad was diagnosed with RCC last March and was given 2-12 months and thank fully he is still here with fighting!! After a long hard fight with the local pct he was finally put on SUTENT, it has really affected him, sores and made his skin on his feet crack. he had a scan few weeks ago and the results came back that the SUTENT is sustaining the tuma but some of it has broken away and spread else where, but not sure where yet. We think it has spread to his throat as he can hardly talk and won't be able to now. It is so heart breaking to hear him talk and the thing that frustrates me is that my mum and stepdad live over 100 miles away from me so i can't just pop in and hug them. My thoughts go out to everyone going through this, i feel like i'm a rollercoaster at the moment, so i dread to think what my stepdad and mum are going through. x
I'm sorry to read about your stepdad, but i'm glad to read he is fighting. I am too. My kidney was removed in 05, the cancer matastasized to my liver in 07 during my pregnancy. I have multiple clear cell and papilar RCC thru out my entire liver, the largest being 11cm. I'm on torisel, I started taking the treatments the first of nov, after 6 treatments, it had stopped the cancer from growing, after the following 6 treatments the ct scan showed the center of the cancer cells are dead and the tumors are beginning to shrink. I have 5 more of 8 more rounds of treatment to go, then another scan to be certain the cancer is dead and the tumors are still shrinking. But I feel very good about the results.
Torisel is a wonderful drug. The side effects are very minimal. I am however a 39 year old female that hasn't takin any other form of treatment. I don't know how this drug would work on your stepdad, but I would ask about it. You go in for infusion once a week for a couple hours. But for me, it's worth it.
Good luck and best wishes to you and your family thru this hard time.
Lisa