my uncle has a kidney cancer and the kidney cancer cells have metastasized into his bones and eyes and lungs. Doctors put him under chemotherapy with sutent and my uncle said he has no more pain in the kidney. does this mean kidney cancer cells in kidney are all gone?
Thanks for your question on Chat Doctor. I can understand your uncle s concern. Pain in kidney cancer is mostly due to stretch of renal capsule. Tumor mass stretches capsule surrounding kidney and this causes pain. Chemotherapy causes shrinkage in tumor size. So reduction in tumor size cause less stretching of renal capsule. So pain is less. But this does not mean that tumor is cured. It is just decreased in size, so with pain. Eventually tumor will grow again and patient will have pain again. Hope I have solved your query. Wishing good health to your uncle. Thanks.