Am I the only one who felt misled / misunderstood by first doctor and glad I moved on to the second doctor?
48M and went to doctor for suspected kidney stone in right kidney - by the time I made it to the CT scan, the pain subsided and scan showed the stone was out of my kidney and in my bladder, but found a 4 cm mass on the lower pole of my left kidney.
Went to urologist #1 next day and he ordered a CT with contrast which also showed the 4 cm mass and suspect for RCC. Talked about option of doing a biopsy but was led to believe by urologist #1 that they are a waste of time and he believes that it is 85% cancerous. Also asked him if I was a candidate of a partial nephrectomy which he said that he felt partials are too dangerous. Set up surgery date for 2nd week of August for radical nephrectomy.
Made a few phone calls and found out that the network urologist #1 is in does not have the capability to perform the biopsy, so that made me question a few things. Also found out that urologist #1 does not perform partial nephrectomy's at all and does all of his surgeries manually as his hospital does not have robotic capabilities.
Prior to the surgery date, I went an hour out of town to a cancer center with a urologic oncologist. Immediately found out that the 85% number I was given was inaccurate, and that it was closer to 70% of suspected RCC tumors are cancerous - 30% are not. This doctor ordered a MRI and drew blood for DNA germline testing (results pending). This doctor also said that I am absolutely a candidate for a partial nephrectomy as I am T1b and the mass is located in the lower pole of the kidney so it should be easily accessible and not interfere with other components. This doctor also put in an order for a biopsy simply because he doesn't operate on patients unless he knows it is cancerous. If it turns out to be benign, he suggests that we move into a surveillance care plan and forego surgery. Out of caution, cancelled the first surgery date.
Did the MRI and confirmed that the mass is indeed 4 cm and in the lower pole. There is a small area at the top of it that doesn't have a "defined" line as seen on the CT scan, and was assured that during surgery, he'll have the ability to go in with an ultrasound and see exactly where the top of the mass is at and will make his cuts as necessary.
I have since booked a tentative surgery date of the first week of September for a robotic partial nephrectomy with urologist #2, with understanding that if he doesn't feel confident in locating the top edge of the mass, it will turn into a full nephrectomy. I feel a little more confident in the second doctor as he has actual cancer training and appears to want to understand the tumor more prior to just cutting out the entire kidney.
Oh, also did a renal function test and found out that the kidney with the suspected RCC tumor in it was doing 60% of the work while the other kidney was carrying 40% of the load. Kinda makes me ponder even more at the situation that we nearly removed the kidney that puts out more fluid just to find out that the tumor in it is possibly benign...
Anyone else get two pretty different opinions when seeking a second opinion??