I was at work one Friday when at lunchtime I went to the bathroom and passed blood. I thought, “This can't be good.” I went back to my computer to look up what it could be and decided to drive myself to the emergency room. I told the doctors I had passed blood and by then I had a terrible pain on my right side. They gave me a CT scan and said I had a "renal mass." This was all within about three hours of passing blood. My regular doctor came by on Saturday and said he saw the scan and he thought it was kidney cancer. By then, a urologist had been contacted and he scheduled a radical nephrectomy for the following Thursday. It turned out to be kidney cancer - stage 3 - because of the size of the tumor he said. I was in the hospital a total of 11 days. That was about 15 months ago. Thank God for that urologist. I've told him he saved my life. I go for periodic X-rays, and a CT scan is scheduled for next week. I keep praying that none of that cancer ever comes back. Published: January 13 ::

My kidney cancer was found purely by accident as a lot of times they are. I had an abscess tooth and went into the dentist. Seconds after getting into the dental chair, she found a lump on the inside of my cheek. She sent me directly to an oral surgeon who did a biopsy. It came back cancer of the salivary gland. I was sent to see a top ENT (ear, nose, throat) doctor who did an upper CT scan and performed surgery on my mouth. After that surgery was performed, the CT scan came back with something on my kidney. Well, what it saw was the top of a 10 cm tumor on my kidney. I went in a year ago on Valentine's Day and had my left kidney removed. It was removed laparoscopically by a top transplant surgeon. I was very lucky. Both cancers turned out to be very rare forms, acinic cell carcinoma (which only 3% of the population gets), and chromophobe renal cancer, which only 3% of the population gets. Both have few statistics on them, but my prognosis is very good. Thank goodness I had a good dentist who checked my cheeks! Published: October 31 ::

I am a 55-year-old male. One day, some 18 months back, I had blood in my urine. I went to a urologist who found nothing. The episodes started up again some six months later with blood in the urine for a day, and then clear for the next several weeks. I did not have any pain, just occasional blood in the urine. I went to another urologist who diagnosed it as kidney cancer and recommended a “radical nephrectomy.” My thoughts were, “No, I don’t have any kidney cancer.” So I obtained a second opinion, then a third, and finally a fourth opinion. After much thought, I had the surgery to remove my left kidney. It was cancer, an invasive papillary urothelial carcinoma, of a high grade. The doctor said that was the bad news, but the good news was it was all in my left kidney, which is now gone. My surgery was eight weeks ago today, and aside from being weak, I’m on the road to recovery. Published: January 13 ::

I’m a 50-year-old woman in good physical shape! I had no idea that I had a cancer tumor 6 cm growing directly in the middle of my outer-front right kidney. I became very ill with a stomach virus from one hour to the next, throwing up severely. It made my blood count go up. The ER technician had a CT scan ordered with the intentions of maybe finding something wrong with my pancreas and instead found the tumor! My kidney was removed entirely on Nov. 10, 2008, and I'm cancer-free because of early detection! It had been growing for about five years. I think everyone should have a body CT scan performed once a year so cancer can be detected in time! Published: January 13 ::

My kidney cancer was found five years ago when I was in the hospital having a major flare-up of lupus. In doing all their tests, it was discovered that there was something on my kidney. I had had no previous signs. I had my left kidney removed with no further treatment needed. I have regular check-ups with CT scans and chest X-rays. Published: January 13 ::

I am a 46-year-old female and had a dull pain in my lower back that extended to the front pelvic area for a few months, almost like mild muscle spasms. I went to the doctor, and after a few visits, two ultrasounds and two CT scans, it was confirmed I had a small tumor on my left kidney. I had surgery six weeks ago (partial nephrectomy) to remove the tumor. I was very lucky to have found it early, the tumor was only 1.5 cm. The cancer was contained to the kidney, and I only lost about 5% of my kidney. The doctors insist that the back pain had nothing to do with the tumor, but since surgery, the pain is gone. Listen to your body, if something doesn't seem right, it probably isn't. Published: January 13 ::

I am 51 yr old female, had no symptoms. Family doctor sent me for baseline abdominal ultrasound to check the conditions of my kidneys, as I’ve been on blood pressure meds for about 15 yrs, and a routine blood test to check kidney function showed slightly different results when we changed one of my medications. A 15cm mass was found on my left kidney, confirmed as renal cell carcinoma by CAT scan with dye. This was 30 days ago. I've had the kidney, tumor, adrenal gland and 4 lymph nodes removed by radical nephrectomy 19 days ago. Stage 3 with no cancer cells found in the lymph nodes, margins or the adrenal gland, but was in the surrounding fatty tissue. Grade 3 aggressive cells. We now wait 30 days and will do new CAT scans of the chest, abdomen and pelvis to look for any new nodules. As my tumor was so large (it weighed over 4 lbs) I have a lot of pain from the surgery, particularly rib pain from having my ribs 'severely retracted' in order to get the monster out of me. I am working hard to remain optimistic for a good outcome the mental stress and recovery is by far harder than the physical. Published: October 13 ::