What is the best treatment for renal cancer?

Kidney cancer is most often treated with surgery, targeted therapy, immunotherapy, or a combination of these treatments. Radiation therapy and chemotherapy are occasionally used. People with kidney cancer that has spread, called metastatic cancer (see below), often receive multiple lines of therapy.

What is the most common treatment for renal cell carcinoma?

Surgical resection remains the only known effective treatment for localized renal cell carcinoma, and it also is used for palliation in metastatic disease. Partial or radical nephrectomy may be used, depending on tumor and patient characteristics. Open, laparoscopic, or robotic surgical techniques may be used.

What is the first-line treatment for renal cell cancer?

In April of this year, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved pembrolizumab plus axitinib as a first-line treatment for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

How does immunotherapy work for renal cancer?

Immunotherapy may treat kidney cancer by changing the way your immune system responds to cancerous cells. These come in the form of immune checkpoint inhibitors or cytokines. Sometimes, immunotherapy may be combined with targeted therapies for better outcomes in advanced cancer.

What is the latest treatment for kidney cancer?

For patients with the most common type of kidney cancer, there is now a new approved use of the targeted therapy cabozantinib (Cabometyx®). In December 2017, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved use of the drug as an initial, or first-line, treatment for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Can renal cell cancer be cured?

Renal cell cancer, also called renal adenocarcinoma, or hypernephroma, can often be cured if it is diagnosed and treated when still localized to the kidney and to the immediately surrounding tissue. The probability of cure is directly related to the stage or degree of tumor dissemination.

What is the treatment and prognosis for renal cell carcinoma?

What is the survival rate for clear cell renal cell carcinoma? As many as 7 in 10 people with small ccRCC tumors are alive five years after the initial diagnosis. Treatment is less effective on large tumors or metastatic cancer. In those cases, five-year survival rates may drop to about 1 in 10.

What is sunitinib for renal cell carcinoma?

Sunitinib is one of several agents (including sorafenib and bevacizumab) that target the activity of angiogenic growth factors and show favorable results in clinical trials involving patients with metastatic clear-cell renal-cell carcinoma.

Who makes sunitinib?

Sunitinib is marketed by Pfizer as Sutent, and is subject to patents and market exclusivity as a new chemical entity until February 15, 2021.

How successful is immunotherapy for renal cell carcinoma?

Approximately 75% of all patients with advanced kidney cancer have intermediate- or poor-risk disease. At 18 months after initiating treatment, 75% of patients treated with the immunotherapy combination were still alive, compared with 60% of those treated with sunitinib.

Can immunotherapy cure metastatic renal cancer?

If you are diagnosed with metastatic kidney cancer — cancer that has spread beyond your kidney — immunotherapy may help you live longer. This type of treatment helps your immune system find and fight cancer cells. But after a while, it can stop working. The cancer can grow or come back.

Why is chemotherapy not used for kidney cancer?

Because kidney cancer cells usually do not respond well to chemo, chemo is not a standard treatment for kidney cancer. Some chemo drugs, such as cisplatin, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), and gemcitabine have been shown to help a small number of patients.