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Stage 4 Renal Cell Cancer With Spreading To Bone. Treatment Options?

Posted on Tue, 19 Jun 2012

Question: thank you. my father has been diagnosed with stage 4 renal cell cancer that has spread to his bonesl. he has chosen hospice care and i would like to have some idea as to what to expect with this. my mother had leukemia and my husband developed a rare condition called pyoderma gangrenosum, both died. i am my dads primary care-giver and i have no idea what to expect. any help would be greatly appreciated

Answered by Dr. Indranil Ghosh (5 hours later)

Hi,

Thanks for the query.

I am sorry to hear about your father. You mentioned that it has spread to his bones and he has chosen hospice.

Though stage 4 disease is incurable, there are some drugs (targeted therapy) which can lead to some improvement in symptoms and extend survival. These are however very expensive but usually covered by insurance.

If the medical oncologist feels one of these could be started, then that is one option now.

Otherwise we should provide him comfort care (pain medicines and other symptomatic medicines) by means of palliative care.

I am afraid survival is usually about 3-6 months in such scenarios (without any targeted therapy). Targeted therapy may prolong survival by an average of six months.

Hope I have answered your query. Should you have any additional queries, I will be available to address them. Please accept this answer if you do not have any other queries.

Regards

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad