Father Just Diagnosed

My Father was just diagnosed with Stage 4 RCC.  After blood in his urine we found out he has kidney cancer that has mestastised.  We had tests run and now we are deciding on the best treatment. The doctor mentioned Sutent.

Sutent seems to be the first course of action.  If your father does not tolerate it well or it doesn't work, they move on to Torisel.  As awful and overwhelming as this all feels right now, we all need to be thankful for the recent advances.  Neither of these drugs was available a few years ago and now there are options.

 My mum was one sutent for ~12 months and is now on Torisel and doing really well 16 months after the diagnosis.  I think the thing that is helping her most is making sure she has a life beyond being a cancer patient.  She can't do everything she used to (gets tired easily, doesn't want to go anywhere where there are crowds and she may catch a cold, can't travel as she would like because of weekly infusions) but she is still very social and involved in a lot of activities.  We try to find the humour in all of this - like when the courses of sutent turned her hair grey followed by a dark stripe for the time she was on break, her hair looked like a racoon tail (you could literally count the number of cycles based on the 'rings' on her head).

 Good luck

Does your mother have a metastasis?  My dad has stage 4 RCC with mets to the lungs.  His tumors have grown and increased in number despite treatment with Sutent.  He start Torisel on Thursday and I am praying non-stop that this works and am happy to read a story of Torisel working.  Good luck to you and your mom.

 

Tina

Yes, the has mets on lungs and bones.  She has her first scan since starting Torisel in a couple of weeks.

So sorry about your dad, I can relate to everything you are feeling!  My dad is getting ready to go to TX for his checkup.... it has been one yr since being diagnosed.  They started him on sutent in July of 07 and things have gone very well for him... til the last visit... there is a shadow on the right lung that they aren't sure about... next week this time we will know if the sutent is still working or not.  He has done very well this past year, but we may be facing a new drug soon.  Best of luck to you and yours, and our prayers are with you.

Thank you so much, and good luck to you as well. My prayers are with you...

My father has been fighting RCC since 03. He has had several surgeries and is now on Sutent. As effective as this drug may be it does have serious side effects. It will be long and hard struggle but do your best to keep him focused and help him not lose hope. I will keep him in my thoughts.