How Is Kidney (Renal Cell) Cancer Treated?

This content has been reviewed and approved by

Robert J. Motzer, MD
Attending Physician

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

The specific treatment for kidney cancer you receive depends on your:

• Age, overall health, and medical history
• Disease level
• Tolerance for specific medications, procedures, or therapies

Whatever your procedure, remember that the remaining kidney, when healthy, is generally able to do the work of both kidneys.

Treatment may include:

• Surgery - nephrectomy (removing the kidney) is the most common treatment for kidney cancer. The different types of nephrectomy procedures include:
  • Radical nephrectomy - removes the whole kidney, along with tissue around the kidney, the nearby adrenal gland (although many surgeons today avoid removing the adrenal gland if possible), and sometimes lymph nodes in the area
  • Partial nephrectomy - removes only the part of the kidney that contains the tumor
  • Laparoscopic nephrectomy - removes all or part of the kidney through small surgical incisions (cuts) instead of a large open incision. The surgeon inserts a tube containing a tiny camera and long, thin surgical instruments through the small incisions. This makes it possible to see and remove the kidney without a large open incision. The advantage is a faster and less painful recovery for the patient.
    
    
• Targeted therapies - blocks or attacks specific growth processes of cancer cells
• Biologic therapy (immunotherapy) - uses the body's own immune system to fight cancer
• Radiation therapy - uses high-energy x-rays to kill cancer cells; sometimes the therapy relieves pain when kidney cancer spreads to the bone
• Chemotherapy - uses drugs that kill dividing cancer cells.
  

Researchers have studied the ways that kidney cells develop into renal cell cancer, then grow and spread. A better understanding of these cell processes has made it possible to develop targeted drug therapies. These therapies are more effective for fighting renal cell cancer than previously available medical treatments.

Three targeted therapies that have been approved in the United States for prescription are Nexavar^® (sorafenib), Sutent^® (sunitinib), and Torisel^TM (temsirolimus). These drugs act by blocking different cell processes that enable a renal tumor to grow and nourish itself with new blood vessels. Other targeted therapies are under study to understand their value in renal cell cancer.

In 40 percent of people with the disease, the cancer occurs in the kidney alone. In those people, the standard treatment is surgery, which cures the cancer 90 percent of the time.

In the 60 percent of people with cancer that spreads outside the kidney, usually cure is not possible with surgery alone. So other specialists, such as medical oncologists (cancer specialists) and possibly even radiation therapists, need to come onboard as an active part of your treatment team.