is it cancer

[ketha1972]

I recently underwent a bonescan that was hopefully going to tell me why I have had leg pain for about 18 months but instead it found no abnormality of my leg. It did find that I had a full kidney. So the doctor said he was not to worried about it but we would check it just to rule it out. he ordered and ultrasound and to my suprise instead of saying its nothing he called and said there is a mass in my left kidney, well this seemed to clear things up fr me because of a family link to polycystic kidney disease so I ask what we do next and then he said it is a solid mass not a cysit now what he indicated he thought maybe cancer and ordered another test where I have to drink something I think a cat scan not sure though that will be tuesday. he then said I need to see urologist. should I worry the doc said he thought the bonescan was a fluk now the ultrasound he says cancer but don't worry? I am wondering what are the odds this is cancer or just an abnormality that is just me being weird shaped or something also doc said this was not present on mri and ct that he did in nov 06. if this is cancer what do I need to know when I see urlogist?  

[Fernando Roque, MD]

Hi.  Just have all the scans reviewed.  CT scans are in general, more reliable than ultrasound, since visualization and interpretation of ultrasound findings depend on the skill and experience of the sonographer more than CT scan findings do.  The bone scan is not normally used to detect masses in soft tissue like the kidneys, so I'm just puzzled why it was utilized in this manner.

[ketha1972]

well now I am really confused. the bone scan showed something in my kidney and the ultrasound showed a mass in the kidney now the ct scan said no mass indicated. is this normal can a ultrasound and the bonescan been wrong? I wonder do I need to have the scans read by another doctor to be sure that I have the all clear? If anyone has had this happen could you please tell me how after two tests he was sure there was a mass and now says there is nothing with no explaination as to what was it they saw on the first two tests? I do not want to have a mass but am concerned that we are missing something.

[Fernando Roque, MD]

Hi.  There is a possibility that a solid mass in the kidney could mean cancer, but the only way to know for sure is to examine tissue coming from that mass in a microscope.  When you see the urologist, what he'll probably do is decide what kind of procedure would be best to get tissue samples from that mass.  He can either do a core needle biopsy, or just decide to excise the whole mass, together with part of the kidney or the whole of it.  What you probably need to ask the urologist are the following: 1) does he need to do open surgery/ excision of the mass? and 2) if samples of the mass have been obtained, what's the histology? Is this cancer?