Gastric Bypass, Kidney Cancer, and Sutent

What a subject line! I was diagnosed 3/10/09 and the surgery to remove my right kidney was 3/24/09. I had a combination of RCC and sarcomatoid. The tumor was about 11 cm round. No other cancer was found. Stage IV, T4, M0, N0.

I have recently started the sutent but am anxious because I had a mini-gastric bypass 6/24/07. With a gastric bypass, your absorption rates are compromised. My oncologist doesn't know, my bypass surgeon doesn't know, and even Pfizer doesn't know (!) what my success rate will be with the sutent. Since I don't have any evidence of tumors, who knows if it is working or not? There's not a blood test or anything to test the concentration in your blood for the sutent. If you have side effects is the only way to know if you are getting it into your system! It's like some kind of comedy of "don't knows".

Is anyone else out there dealing with a combination of a gastric bypass and kidney cancer? My biggest fear is that the bypass will have to be reversed and I will gain all that weight back which will heap alot more health problems on me in addition to the cancer fight.

I did suggest to Pfizer that they conduct some sort of research on this since weight loss surgeries of all kinds are being performed on a more common basis these days.

Hi,

I'm sorry I know nothing about Sutent and gastric bypass surgery, that is the relationship between the two.   I do know that nobody can tell you before Sutent therapy if it will work or not, as everyone person is different.  I also know that my RCC specialist would not let me go on Sutent or Nexavar after my nephrectomy, as supposedly I was NED (no evidence of disease).  The rationale for this is that if there is no measurable tumor, there is nothing to watch.  Also, you could build up an immunity to Sutent, so that if you ever do need it, it may not work.  There is a study about Sutent being taken as a preventative, but, I don't think there are any preliminary results yet. There is no blood test to tell if it is working, that I know of.  I wish the best of luck to you.  Nancy

On 5/15/2009 utisforme wrote:

What a subject line! I was diagnosed 3/10/09 and the surgery to remove my right kidney was 3/24/09. I had a combination of RCC and sarcomatoid. The tumor was about 11 cm round. No other cancer was found. Stage IV, T4, M0, N0.

I have recently started the sutent but am anxious because I had a mini-gastric bypass 6/24/07. With a gastric bypass, your absorption rates are compromised. My oncologist doesn't know, my bypass surgeon doesn't know, and even Pfizer doesn't know (!) what my success rate will be with the sutent. Since I don't have any evidence of tumors, who knows if it is working or not? There's not a blood test or anything to test the concentration in your blood for the sutent. If you have side effects is the only way to know if you are getting it into your system! It's like some kind of comedy of "don't knows".

Is anyone else out there dealing with a combination of a gastric bypass and kidney cancer? My biggest fear is that the bypass will have to be reversed and I will gain all that weight back which will heap alot more health problems on me in addition to the cancer fight.

I did suggest to Pfizer that they conduct some sort of research on this since weight loss surgeries of all kinds are being performed on a more common basis these days.

 

 

Thank you, Nancy. I guess each doctor has his/her own idea of what works. That's certainly something I can discuss at my next appointment!

I also know nothing about combo of Gastric Bypass, Kidney Cancer and Sutent. I am curious on using sutent and becoming immune to it, never heard of that. I had left kidney removed in 2007 with a mestatic RCC tumor just removed from my left lung in April 2009. My Oncologist seems to think that taking Sutent is the option to keep any more tumors from growing, a pretentative.