I know I am late to the party but I would like to relay another story. My brother had metastatic kidney cancer. He chose locally in a smaller city in a rural state. His do our was on the clinical trial boards for all kidney cancer. This alone gave my brother enough confidence to stay local. I would have to say the care was second rate compared to the CCC I went to. The doctors here even followed the case and suggested several things that were ignored and cause excessive suffering and struggles. He had to have his lungs drained multiple times yet they up used a needle each time and it was incredibly painful and the docs expected to do this often aince my brother was diagnosed terminal from initial diagnosis.

Also, dialysis was never even offered and the edema was so bad from compromised kidneys that he gained 50 lbs in each leg. After weeks of complaining they sent someone over to wrap each leg over 2 days. It brought the weight down almost 100 lbs total and prevented him from wearing a pressurized suit because of the pain. Over the two years of suffering I believe had just these two areas been addressed early, quality of life would have greatly improved. My brother was offered lading edge treatment ala clinical trials and this was what his doctor did. When the trials weren't panning out, my brother changed doctors and the care improved exponentially till the end. However, the quality of life issues prevented him from enjoying his last two years beyond what I would call inhumane.

None of this is meant to create fear but the truth is...many only get one chance to fight this horrible disease and the things I have seen in the past 10 years are enough to keep me seeing the best possible treatment in terms of doctors and facilities.