Researchers are studying different types of surgery to remove kidney cancer, including an adrenal-sparing nephrectomy and partial nephrectomy. For patients with RCC in both kidneys, physicians are exploring the removal of one kidney with a radical nephrectomy while treating the other with a partial nephrectomy and then rebuilding it. Other surgical approaches being tested include using extreme cold (cryosurgery) or extreme heat (microwave thermotherapy) to kill small, localized cancer cells.
Immunotherapy using tumor vaccines is also being studied. This involves treating cancer cells with genes that have been activated to produce cytokines, which help the patient's immune system target kidney cancer. Without this therapy, the immune system rarely recognizes RCC well enough to destroy it.
Anti-angiogenesis drugs, which kill cancers by stopping their blood supply, and anti-growth factor drugs may also help fight RCC. Anti-growth factor drugs interfere with the substances that cancer cells produce to stimulate their own growth.
Another treatment that may prove useful is circadian-timed chemotherapy, which coordinates drug dosage levels with the body's natural biological rhythms, including the sleep-wake cycle and the menstrual cycle. Circadian-timed cancer treatment may be more effective and have fewer side effects.
Advances are also being made in radiation oncology. Gamma knife radiation is now used to treat RCC tumors that have metastasized to the brain. For tumors that do not respond to drugs or cannot be surgically removed, stereotactic radiation or proton beam radiation may be useful.
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