Renal cancer or kidney cancer is fatal unless treated in time. Thus, when it comes to renal cancer carcinoma (RCC), you must consult your doctor the moment you observe any of its symptoms. Cancer could spread slowly from your kidney to other parts of your body extremely slowly and at times, it may even seem dormant, despite being at an advanced stage.

Your doctor will first diagnose the condition and would then suggest treatments for renal or kidney cancer that can include a combination of various methods such as immunotherapy along with radiation, surgery, or even targeted therapy to treat the same effectively. Treatments for renal or kidney cancer are generally effective provided the cancer is diagnosed early on. If your condition is in the advanced stage, your doctor may recommend a combination of different treatment methodologies to help treat it. Some of the treatment methods that may be used are listed below:

1. Active surveillance
As with all cancers, the treatments for renal or kidney cancer will include constant surveillance. Your doctor may want to check and determine if cancer has spread to other parts of the body. As cancer is known to spread slowly at times, active surveillance can help your physician to determine if the cancer is aggressive in which case; an appropriate treatment may be suggested. He/she will recommend a series of CT scans of the target area to determine the cancer’s current rate of growth in your body.

2. Radiation
Your doctor may also recommend radiation to try and kill the cancer cells. This involves the use of high-energy beams to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. It is usually used alongside chemotherapy and/or surgery.

3. Cytoreductive surgery
This form of treatment is generally utilized by doctors to help treat aggressive forms of kidney cancer. If it is determined that your cancer is undergoing rapid growth and spreading to other areas of your body, your physician or team of doctors would recommend surgery. The process is where the tumors in your kidney are removed by nephrectomy.

4. Targeted therapy
Targeted therapy is where your doctor would prescribe certain drugs to stop cancer from spreading to other areas of your body. Some doctors may even prefer targeted therapy to surgery as a way to prevent and limit the spread of cancer in your body. Your physician will prescribe small molecule inhibitors that attack certain specific features of your cancer to limit it from growing further. For example, you may be given Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI), which prevents cancer from growing. You may also be prescribed MTOR which is generally used when cancer does not respond to TKIs.

5. Side effects of cancer treatments
Targeted therapy can at times, be equally as effective as surgery but the medicines used for the same tend to come with some side effects. You may need to consult your physician regarding the same and see if he/she can help mitigate some of these side effects.