Follow up for kidney cancer

After your treatment has finished, your doctor will want you to have regular checks ups. At first, this is to make sure you are recovering well from your treatment. If you have had treatment to try to cure your kidney cancer, you will continue to have check ups once you are well. This is to check for any sign of the cancer coming back. This is an upsetting thought and many people find their check ups a bit daunting because of that. But if kidney cancer comes back, the earlier it is picked up, the easier it is to treat.

If you have advanced cancer, your follow up appointments will be to make sure you are as well as possible and to keep an eye on your progress. Your doctor will discuss any symptoms you have and suggest treatment to help control them. Your doctor can also check whether you need any more treatment to control or slow your cancer.

If you've had surgery, you usually have your first appointment 4 to 6 weeks after you go home from hospital. When your specialist sees you next will depend on how you are doing and the risk of your cancer coming back. This risk depends mainly on the stage and grade of your cancer. In general, smaller, lower grade cancers have a lower risk of coming back.

If the risk of your cancer returning is thought to be low, you may only need to have follow up for 5 years. You might have a chest X-ray every 3 months for the first 2 years, and then every 6 months until you reach 5 years. If your risk of cancer returning is higher you'll probably have regular CT scans for the first 3 years. If all is well after 3 years, you might then just have 6 monthly X-rays. But this follow up may continue for life.

If you have had treatment to try to cure your kidney cancer, the more time passes with no sign of it, the smaller the risk of the cancer ever coming back. But there is still a small risk, even after 10 years. Your check ups are to make sure the cancer is found as soon as possible, should it come back. Your own doctor will know best how long you should continue to come back to the hospital and will be happy to talk to you about it. If you are worried or notice any new symptoms between appointments, you must let your doctor know as soon as possible. You don’t have to wait until the next appointment.

If your cancer was not cured, but is now stable, you and your doctor will decide together how often you need to come in. This will depend on any treatment you might need to help control the cancer.

Tests you may have include

• Being examined by your doctor
• Blood tests
• Chest X-rays
• CT scans
• Ultrasound scans

Your doctor will examine you, check your lymph nodes and abdomen, listen to your chest and ask how you are. You will have blood tests to check that your remaining kidney is working well. Chest X-rays and scans are to check for any signs of cancer spread. You may not be offered scans unless you have a symptom that concerns you or your doctor. CT scans and X-rays both involve exposure to radiation. Even though this is a very small amount of radiation, doctors do not like to order unnecessary scans for this reason.

If it does come back there is treatment available. It can be possible to get kidney cancer back under control again for long periods, even if it has spread. The earlier you have treatment the better. Which treatment you need will depend on where in the body it reappears.

Many people find their checkups quite worrying. If you are feeling well and getting on with life, a hospital appointment can bring back all the worry about having cancer. Nearly everyone feels like this at sometime or other. Some people say they become difficult to live with when an appointment is coming up. You may find it helpful to tell someone close to you how you are feeling. If you are able to share your worries, they may be easier to bear. It is quite common nowadays for people to have counselling after cancer treatment. To find out more about counselling, look in the CancerHelp coping with cancer section.