Surgery?

People regularly ask me, "Why don't you do surgery on both tumor locations." I say that they just don't seem to treat metastasized renal cancer with surgery (much). There are some people from the renal cancer mailing list that have had lung tumor Cryoablation (a metal with freezing liquid running through it to freeze/kill tumor like a freezing scalpel). Here's one person (pasted in below) that is a real surgery advocate which I bring up as some sort of alternative in case drugs fail. The mailing list is about 1000 people that post messages about their renal cancer situation and answer questions. You get about 10-20 a day in a digest letter.

Hi Alan: I have had 3 sessions of cryoablation for my lung mets over the past 11/2 years. My follow up CT scan for the last session is in a couple weeks.so I can't report on the last cryo session quite yet. However the prior 2 sessions have killed the lung mets that were treated. There remains some scar tissue but the tumors are dead. I am hoping for the same results for my 3rd cryo session. I also am hoping not to get any more mets as I am 21/2 post rad neph. Naturally we all hope we don't get anymore mets so that statement is a tad obvious. Cryoablation is a very viable treatment for lung mets. The key is to find a good Interventional Radiologist that is experienced in Cryo. I was fortunate to find Dr. Brad Johnson who is extremely skilled and headquarters at OSF in Peoria ,IL. I am surprised that more RCC patients do not pursue Cryoablation for lung mets given the high success rates I have both personally experienced as well as others great results I have read about.I suspect that most Oncologists prefer the strict drug approach and are reluctant to send their patients to alternative Dr.s. That was certainly the case with my 1st Oncologist. So I arranged the referal myself, and got a new Oncologist to boot . Drugs may work for some,but I prefer to either surgically remove or ablate the mets. I like the idea of getting rid of them. Incidentally, I did take 50 mg. of Sutent for 6 months right after my rad neph. I experienced good shrinkage. I did not technically fail Sutent but made the decision to go the cryoablation route instead. I figure we have so many people on Sutent that if the long term results for some reason trend up I could try it again at a later date. Or perhaps one of the new drugs may emerge with higher efficacy stats as well. We all need to make decisions on our treatments and even though there are more choices lately,none stand out as outstanding in my eye. I didn't mean that to sound negative . I am happy to be alive and won't let RCC beat me mentally. I only wish that more cancer research was being done. If people knew how very little money is being spent on research there would probably be a revolt. I would like to think so anyway. Be Strong and good luck to all.