Kidney cancer occurs when cancerous cells multiply and form a tumor in the kidney. The most common type of kidney cancer is renal cell carcinoma and symptoms of this condition include loss of appetite, chronic back pain, and blood in the urine amongst others. There are various surgical and nonsurgical treatment methods to cure kidney cancer, although in some cases, these may not be enough. In cases of advanced kidney cancer, there are four therapies that patients can use as treatment methods.

Three of them are systemic therapies that involve giving the patient medication either orally via a capsule or pill, or intravenously, while the fourth one uses radiation. Read on to know more about them:

1. Targeted therapy
This targets the specific proteins, genes, or tissue environment that contribute to the cancer’s survival and growth. It helps to reduce the growth and spread of cancerous cells while at the same time minimizing cell damage. The three targeted therapy kidney cancer treatments are:

• Anti-angiogenesis therapy
  Since the tumor requires nutrients delivered by the blood vessels to spread and grow, this therapy aims to “starve” the tumor by stopping angiogenesis, which is the process of forming new blood vessels.
• mTOR inhibitors
  Medicines like temsirolimus and everolimus target a specific protein that helps renal cancer cells grow, known as mTOR. Studies and research have shown that this therapy slows the growth of renal cancer.
• Combined therapies
  The FDA in 2019 approved two combination treatments for the first treatment of advanced cases of renal cell carcinoma. The first combination in this uses pembrolizumab and axitinib. The second used two targeted therapies, avelumab and axitinib.

2. Immunotherapy
Also known as biological therapy, this aims to boost the patient’s immune system and natural defenses for the treatment of kidney cancer.

• Alpha-interferon
  This is used to treat renal cancer that has spread beyond the kidneys. It alters the proteins on the surface of cancerous cells and slows down their growth.
• Interleukin-2
  This has been used to treat late-stage renal cancer. It is a cellular hormone known as a cytokine that is created by white blood cells and is essential for the destruction of tumor cells.
• Immune checkpoint inhibitors
  This is another form of immunotherapy. In this, the FDA has approved a combination of two immune checkpoint inhibitors for the treatment of kidney cancer. These are nivolumab and ipilimumab.

3. Chemotherapy
This systemic kidney cancer treatment regimen involves the use of drugs to destroy cancer cells by targeting their ability to grow and divide. The process takes place over a period of time in a specific number of cycles. The patient may be given one drug at a time or a combination of various drugs at one go. Unfortunately, kidney cancer is often resistant to this therapy. Side effects of chemotherapy include hair loss, decrease in appetite, fatigue, vomiting, and nausea, among others.

4. Radiation therapy
This treatment utilizes high-energy X-rays or other particles to destroy cancerous cells. A radiation oncologist usually administers this therapy. One again, it should be noted that radiation therapy is very rarely used to treat kidney cancer as it can cause severe damage to the other healthy kidney. This treatment is used only when a patient is unable to have surgery. Mostly, it is employed to ease symptoms like swelling in the brain or bone pain, when the cancer has spread.