Kidney Cancer

[Guest]

i told recently (I think on channel) a urine cytopathology test looks "high grade tumors" is meant by high grade?thank.

[Guest]

... I guess I should elaborate more on my question. I had 2 of these urine tests about 1 yr. apart. Both had me classified as a #2 out of a possible 4. ( #1 being normal and #4 being cancer.) My MD said #2 meant some dysplastic (?) cells and #3 would have been "more dysplastic" ) -[if I am using the correct word, I have not seen it in writing and this is what it sounded like my MD was saying.] Anyway, the last test was about 8 weeks ago and as I said it still showed as a #2 and urologist also read to me, "NO MALIGNANT CELLS SEEN." Naturally, I was greatly relieved after a year of this and urologist was obviously pleased too. Regular urine cytology tests have shown atypical transitional cells since Sept. of 1999 which didn't seem to bother urologist too much. Now Renal CT and radiologist report of last week says, " 3.2 cm mass in kidney consistent with transitional cell carcinoma" !!! Prior CT of 1 yr.ago showed only cysts and they have stayed the same. I need to know why these tests contradict each other! If cytopathology says "no malignant cells seen" and a few weeks later the CT says there IS cancer, then what good is the cytopathology test?! Urologist was pleased there were no malig. cells in urine test, and told me "NOT TO WORRY." He said we'll do the CT just to look at the cysts again as I was still having hematria and he was telling me alot of people have unexplained hematuria and it would be something I would just live withand that cysts "could bleed". I thought I was in the clear with this. Now, my ONLY hope is that somehow the CT report is wrong. What are the chances of that? How would you explain the contradiction in these 2 tests??? Thank you for your help, this is really important to me! (and probably to others as well!)

[Guest]

First until you have a biopsy there is no way to know what you have (benign or malignant). Second, there is no test which physicians use (especially screening tests) which is perfect and has no false negatives or false positives- even a mammogram will miss a known palpable lump in a breast 20% of the time. I hope that this information is helpful and thank you for using oncologychannel.