Roger Schultes

Many of you know that Roger had a cancerous kidney removed this past May.  He went in the hospital the end of March with a kidney stone issue. After an X-ray they found 5 stones in the left kidney with one trying to pass and 6 in the right kidney. They also found a mass in the left kidney. 
After a couple weeks of tests and scans Roger then had the 9, not 6, stones removes from the good (right) kidney. Shortly after he had his left kidney removed. The doctor confirmed the mass was cancerous with Clear Cell and Sarcomatoid Renal Cancer cells. The Sarcomatoid Renal Cells are rare and very aggressive so the Dr said, "We have to watch him like a hawk with CT scans every 3 months." There were no treatments done after surgery since the perimeter around the kidney was clear. 
Mid August Roger had his first 3 month scan and the results were 2 spots on the  upper lobe of his left lung. Roger immediately had a bone scan that turned out clear. The week before last he had a biopsy of the spots which confirmed the Sarcomatoid Renal Cell. Last week we saw the Oncholigist who did not give us a very good prognoses - months to a year. 
After we first discovered the spots on his lungs we made the decision to seek a second opinion outside of our area. Thanks to my friend Keri McGeary, she recommended Huntsman Cancer Hospital in Salt Lake City. I called them right away and was treated with such compassion and understanding. They immediately obtained Rogers records and set appts for us to be there quickly.  
We are currently on our way home from Salt Lake City. Huntsman is an amazing place! We're very optimistic. There is a drug they want to use that is "the" drug to use for the rare cancer that Roger has. It's called High Dose IL-2. We have to go back to Salt Lake next Monday for Roger to do 5 days inpatient treatment that is done in the ICU because he is monitored very closely. The side effects are like having a severe case of the flu. We come back home for a week then back again for another week of treatments then home for 8-10 weeks. We go back to Huntsman after that for them to see how the treatment has done. He can do this treatment up to 4 times. There is a 10% chance for a cure. 10% chance for the tumors to shrink and the prognoses is 24-32 months. There is another 30% chance for it to stabilize and it has the same prognoses of 24-32 months.  Our team we have at Huntsman are very positive and have claimed that Roger will be the 10% cured! Thanks for the thoughts and prayers!