• Radical nephrectomy

  Surgery to remove the tumor, the entire kidney, and surrounding tissue is called a radical nephrectomy. If nearby tissue and surrounding lymph nodes are also affected by the disease, a radical nephrectomy and lymph node dissection is performed.

• Partial nephrectomy

  A partial nephrectomy is the surgical removal of a tumor. This type of surgery preserves kidney function and lowers the risk of developing chronic kidney disease after surgery.

• Laparoscopic and robotic surgery (minimally invasive surgery)

  During laparoscopic surgery, the surgeon makes several small incisions rather than the 1 larger incision in the abdomen to completely remove the kidney or perform a partial nephrectomy.

• Radiofrequency ablation (RFA)

  Sometimes surgery is not recommended because of tumor characteristics or the patients overall health. RFA is the use of a needle inserted into the tumor to destroy the cancer with an electrical current.

• Cryoablation

  Cryoablation is the freezing of cancer cells with a metal probe inserted through a small incision. The metal probe is placed into the cancerous tissue.

• Anti-angiogenesis therapy

  This type of treatment focuses on stopping angiogenesis, which is the process of making new blood vessels. Because a tumor needs the nutrients delivered by blood vessels to grow and spread, the goal of anti-angiogenesis therapies is to starve the tumor. Talk to our kidney cancer specialists about FDA approved anti-angiogenesis drugs that have been shown to slow down tumor growth for people with metastatic renal carcinoma (stage 4 kidney cancer).

• Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs)

  Clear cell kidney cancer has a mutation of the VHL gene that causes the cancer to make too much of a certain protein, known as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). VEGF controls the formation of new blood vessels. Drugs called TKIs help block VEGF and other chemical signals that promote the development of new blood vessels. Please call to talk to our kidney cancer oncologists about FDA approved TKIs, which are indicated for use in treatment for clear cell kidney cancer.

• mTOR inhibitors

  The FDA has also approved drugs that target a certain protein that helps kidney cancer cells grow, called mTOR. Studies show that these drugs slow kidney cancer growth.

A type of immunotherapy, called checkpoint inhibitors, works by taking the brakes off the immune system so it is better able to destroy the cancer. These drugs use antibodies directed at specific molecules found on the surface of immune cells, such as programmed death-1 (PD-1) and cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4).

Systemic chemotherapy for kidney cancer gets into the bloodstream to reach cancer cells throughout the body. Although chemotherapy is useful for treating most types of cancer, kidney cancer is often resistant to chemotherapy. However, researchers continue to study new drugs and new combinations of drugs.