Sarcoidosis

[Warrigal]

We have been very worried about my son in law. He as been ill lately and it has been confirmed that he has a cancerous tumour on one kidney, and the kidney needs to be removed. However they also scanned his lungs and anomalies showed up. The next step was to have his lungs biopsied yesterday.

Although the official report will not be available for ten days, the doctors are pretty certain that it is sarcoidosis, which is a condition caused by bacteria, not cancer. We are very relieved and they have begun treating him for this condition already. The kidney removal will still take place, either on 10th or 20th of this month. They don't him to have an anaesthetic if his lungs are compromised.

Of all kinds of bad news we were dreading, this comes as the best new we could have received.

His symptoms were fever, bloodshot eyes, aching joints and general malaise. Nothing to do with the cancer on the kidney.
He's lucky that this was even picked up at this stage.

Has anyone heard of sardcoidosis? This was new to me so I had to look it up.

I found this fact sheet: http://lungfoundation.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Sarcoidosis.pdf

 

[QuickSilver]

Yes I have but never heard of it being caused by bacteria... I always thought it was an autoimmune disorder.. where areas in the bronchioles and alveoli become inflamed.. and it tends to run in families.

 

[Lara]

Although the official report will not be available for ten days, the doctors are pretty certain that it is sarcoidosis, which is a condition caused by bacteria, not cancer. We are very relieved and they have begun treating him for this condition already.

Phew, not cancer, and treatable...good news. Let us know in 10 days if the test results confirm what the doctors believe to be true. Sounds very promising indeed.

 

[AZ Jim]

My thoughts are with you DW. I hope it all pans out for you guys.

 

[imp]

Sarcoidosis is potentially very serious; it was thought it might be the cause of my own year-long respiratory difficulties, which, incidentally, were never medically resolved, but rather gradually diminished and disappeared by themselves.

Most recent thinking suggests as a possible cause, treatment with a "TNF" inhibitor such as "Etanercept".

Etanercept (trade name Enbrel) is a biopharmaceutical that treats autoimmune diseases by interfering with tumor necrosis factor (TNF; a soluble inflammatory cytokine) by acting as a TNF inhibitor. It has U.S. F.D.A. approval to treat rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis, plaque psoriasis and ankylosing spondylitis. TNF-alpha is the "master regulator" of the inflammatory (immune) response in many organ systems. Autoimmune diseases are caused by an overactive immune response.

Surely, neither malignancy nor Sarcoidosis is to be "glossed over". imp