Best Kidney Cancer Treatment Options

Answer 1

When diagnosed with kidney cancer, the best treatment option depends on the overall health of the patient, the type of cancer found and how far it has advanced. Options include surgical and nonsurgical methods. While surgery is the most common treatment for cancer of the kidney, nonsurgical therapies can help relieve symptoms or make surgery easier to perform.

Importance of Staging

When physicians first diagnose cancer of the kidney, they need to know how far the cancer has advanced before attempting treatment. Cancerous cells can stay within the kidney, spread to nearby lymph nodes or move into the adrenal gland, liver, bones and lungs. Staging helps physicians determine tumor size, which organs are involved and the best treatment options. Determining the stage of the cancer requires imaging tests. These tests include a CT scan, an ultrasound and sometimes an MRI.

Kidney Cancer Surgery

Once physicians know the extent of the problem, they have several treatment methods available. Removing the kidney is the most common. Depending on the stage of the cancer, there are three operations a surgeon can perform. If the kidney tumor is small, a partial nephrectomy involves removing just the abnormal growth within the kidney. A larger tumor may require a simple nephrectomy. This procedure removes the entire damaged kidney. When the cancer spreads beyond the kidney, a radical nephrectomy is used. In this case, a surgeon removes the kidney, adrenal glands, surrounding tissue and sometimes portions of the lymph nodes.

Nonsurgical Methods of Treatment

Surgery is not always possible, so physicians might choose an arterial embolization or radiation treatment in an attempt to shrink the tumor. These types of procedures make surgical methods easier or help to relieve the symptoms of the cancer. Radiation kills the cancer cells, so this method is also beneficial after surgery. Often physicians use radiation to eliminate any cancer cells still around. Biological therapy attempts to use synthetic forms of interleukin-2 or interferon alpha naturally found within the body's immune system and produced when the body detects infections or diseases. Chemotherapy is a drug-based treatment for kidney cancer but is the least effective method for treating it.