Renal Cell Carcinoma

My sister has been diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma of the kidney and has had surgery to remove that kidney. Her cancer is stage 3. She's not sure what this means. Is anyone else in this stage and what can she expect?

My husband was diagnosed with RCC Stage IIIC in December of last year. He had a radical nephrectomy in January. The tumor was in the vena cava and was getting ready to turn into the right atrium. Stage III has an A, B and C. He was put on a bypass machine during the operation. After that he joined a blind trial at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. He was in it for six months. We do not know if he received the medicine or nothing. Dr. Ni of Emory was the only Doctor who sat down with us and explained RCC. We were told that because he is Stage III C that it will be back. There is no if it is a when. So Rick gets scans every 3 months. (The trial is monitoring him for 5 years). The reason Rick chose the trial is because there is no cure for RCC. By putting himself in the trial he had a 50/50 shot. Plus the trial would be monitoring him closely. That is about all you can do. When it comes back we will deal with it. We pray and wonder why we are going through this. Rick was 42 when he was diagnosed. They said he must have had this for atleat 10 years it was so big. I know it is scary. But there are people out here to support you. We found a lot of information on Steve Dunn's website. Theresa

Thanks for your response. My sister is also under close watch. The doctor wanted her to go to Charlottesville but she refused. He will be doing MRI's on her every 3 months for the next five years to see if it has spread somewhere else. They did find a spot on her breast but do not know what it is at this point. She's scheduled for a mammogram this month. Like you and husband, I wonder why my family is going through so much. My other sister had breast cancer last October, I had a rare skin cancer surgery in March, my husband had prostrate cancer surgery in July and my sister had kidney cancer surgery two weeks later. We have to keep praying and looking to God. God Bless you and your husband. We just don't know what's in the future for us. The only thing we can do is deal with it as it comes.