Found Out Two Weeks Ago

Two weeks ago my husband found out that he has renal cell carcinoma with mets to a lung and ribs. He is currently on pain meds and the plan is to remove the kidney and start Interleukin II therapy. I am not seeing alot of other patients doing this therapy. I have done alot of research and am confident in the doctors. They believe that this is the best possibility for remission and want to try it before the Sutent. Anyone else know any more?

Sarah,

High dose Interleukin-2 has been shown to have the best record for lasting remissions for those who respond to it; Sutent has less severe side effects but is too new to tell if the remissions will last. High dose Interleukin-2 has tough side effects and is usually administered in the hospital; some hospitals routinely admit IL-2 patients to the ICU ofr treatment. Because the side effects are severe, physicians do not use it for cancers that are more responsive to conventional chemotherapy or radiation than RCC; it is most often used to treat renal cell and melanoma patients.

It sounds as if you have good doctors. A person with metastatic disease should have the cancerous kidney removed, and should be treated by an oncologist who has experience in treating renal cell carcinoma patients. especially if they have a subtype less common than the most common clear cell. The Kidney Cancer Association has a list of experienced doctors (call them at 800-850-9132) but many very good doctors are not on their list. There is an email support group specific to kidney cancer; join it at http://cancerguide.org/kofaq/ .