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Just diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer: What treatments help?

Posted by ronc531 @ronc531, Mar 2 12:11am

At 67 I was just diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer. The doctor had me take a CT scan for another issues and accidentally found a large mass on my kidney. 3 limp nodes, and tumors on my lungs.

Not sure what to do at this point.

Feel like i have to keep working to make sure my wife gets my life insurance.

Any suggestions for treatments, diet, anything you might have found that helps.

Thanks Ron

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mick4sb | @mick4sb | 6 days ago

Thank you and best of luck to you as well. Quite a journey.

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dwl75 | @dwl75 | 6 days ago

Hi Ron,
I just joined Mayo Connect. My husband’s renal cancer was found when he began having double vision. A tumor was found on his pituitary gland when he had an MRI of the brain. He had surgery for what was a suspected benign adenoma on the pituitary. Surprise! The pathologist called the surgeon down to say it was a metastatic renal cancer. The kidney and tumor was removed and a PET scan showed tumors in the lungs, abdominal lymph nodes, and opposite adrenal gland. Initially he was treated with focused beam radiation to the pituitary and adrenal gland. We then transferred care to Mayo Clinic. Initially, he was on Cabometyx (TKI) and Keytruda( immunotherapy). This combination was working very well and one of the smaller lung tumors even disappeared. He developed the hand/ foot syndrome with blisters and pain and eventually liver and kidney abnormal lab results so he had to go off that. He also was on Lenvima for awhile with good results. He is now on a new class of drug, Welireg. His tumors are stable and we have been battling this for 5 1/2 years now. We are so blessed and thankful he is still here to continue the battle. Take heart that every time you think there is little hope, God and medical science seem to provide additional help. May you achieve excellent results with whatever you and your doctors think is the best treatment for you.

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Moderator
Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | 13 hours ago
In reply to @dwl75 "Hi Ron, I just joined Mayo Connect. My husband’s renal cancer was found when he began..." + (show)
@dwl75

Hi Ron,
I just joined Mayo Connect. My husband’s renal cancer was found when he began having double vision. A tumor was found on his pituitary gland when he had an MRI of the brain. He had surgery for what was a suspected benign adenoma on the pituitary. Surprise! The pathologist called the surgeon down to say it was a metastatic renal cancer. The kidney and tumor was removed and a PET scan showed tumors in the lungs, abdominal lymph nodes, and opposite adrenal gland. Initially he was treated with focused beam radiation to the pituitary and adrenal gland. We then transferred care to Mayo Clinic. Initially, he was on Cabometyx (TKI) and Keytruda( immunotherapy). This combination was working very well and one of the smaller lung tumors even disappeared. He developed the hand/ foot syndrome with blisters and pain and eventually liver and kidney abnormal lab results so he had to go off that. He also was on Lenvima for awhile with good results. He is now on a new class of drug, Welireg. His tumors are stable and we have been battling this for 5 1/2 years now. We are so blessed and thankful he is still here to continue the battle. Take heart that every time you think there is little hope, God and medical science seem to provide additional help. May you achieve excellent results with whatever you and your doctors think is the best treatment for you.

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Hi @dwl75, I know your message was directed to @ronc531, but I thought I butt in to say "welcome". It is helpful to hear about the treatments your husband had and he is doing fairly well all considered.

Has the hand/foot syndrome gone away after changing treatments? How is he doing on belzutifan (Welireg)?

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dwl75 | @dwl75 | 12 hours ago

The blistering and wounds on the feet are healed. His fingertips are still very sensitive and even salty foods will sting. The fingertip skin is very thin and he has lost finger prints. He is doing OK on Welireg. He has muscle and joint pain but it is tolerable. His tumors have stayed stable but not decreased in size yet.

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