Treatment of Kidney Cancer by Stage

Stage I Renal Cell Cancer

Treatment of stage I renal cell cancer may include the following:

Surgery (radical nephrectomy, simple nephrectomy, or partial nephrectomy).
Radiation therapy as palliative therapy to relieve symptoms in patients who cannot have surgery.
Arterial embolization as palliative therapy.
A clinical trial of a new treatment.

Check for U.S. clinical trials from NCI’s list of cancer clinical trials that are now accepting patients with stage I renal cell cancer. For more specific results, refine the search by using other search features, such as the location of the trial, the type of treatment, or the name of the drug. Talk with your doctor about clinical trials that may be right for you. General information about clinical trials is available from the NCI Web site.

Stage II Renal Cell Cancer

Treatment of stage II renal cell cancer may include the following:

Surgery (radical nephrectomy or partial nephrectomy).
Surgery (nephrectomy), before or after radiation therapy.
Radiation therapy as palliative therapy to relieve symptoms in patients who cannot have surgery.
Arterial embolization as palliative therapy.
A clinical trial of a new treatment.

Check for U.S. clinical trials from NCI’s list of cancer clinical trials that are now accepting patients with stage II renal cell cancer. For more specific results, refine the search by using other search features, such as the location of the trial, the type of treatment, or the name of the drug. Talk with your doctor about clinical trials that may be right for you. General information about clinical trials is available from the NCI Web site.

Stage III Renal Cell Cancer

Treatment of stage III renal cell cancer may include the following:

Surgery (radical nephrectomy). Blood vessels of the kidney and some lymph nodes may also be removed.
Arterial embolization followed by surgery (radical nephrectomy).
Radiation therapy as palliative therapy to relieve symptoms and improve the quality of life.
Arterial embolization as palliative therapy.
Surgery (nephrectomy) as palliative therapy.
Radiation therapy before or after surgery (radical nephrectomy).
A clinical trial of biologic therapy following surgery.

Check for U.S. clinical trials from NCI’s list of cancer clinical trials that are now accepting patients with stage III renal cell cancer. For more specific results, refine the search by using other search features, such as the location of the trial, the type of treatment, or the name of the drug. Talk with your doctor about clinical trials that may be right for you. General information about clinical trials is available from the NCI Web site.

Stage IV and Recurrent Renal Cell Cancer

Treatment of stage IV and recurrent renal cell cancer may include the following:

Surgery (radical nephrectomy).
Surgery (nephrectomy) to reduce the size of the tumor.
Targeted therapy.
Biologic therapy.
Radiation therapy as palliative therapy to relieve symptoms and improve the quality of life.
A clinical trial of a new treatment.

Check for U.S. clinical trials from NCI’s list of cancer clinical trials that are now accepting patients with stage IV renal cell cancer and recurrent renal cell cancer. For more specific results, refine the search by using other search features, such as the location of the trial, the type of treatment, or the name of the drug. Talk with your doctor about clinical trials that may be right for you. General information about clinical trials is available from the NCI Web site.

Adapted from the National Cancer Institute’s Physician Data Query (PDQ(r)) Cancer Information Summaries (http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq). Last Modified: March 5, 2015

For more information:

Go to the Kidney cancer health topic.