How is renal cell cancer treated?

How renal cell cancer is treated depends on the extent of the cancer.
If the cancer is detected and treated early, the chances of a cure are high.

For renal cell cancer which has not spread to other organs, the treatment of choice is surgery aimed at complete removal of the cancer.

This may involve a partial nephrectomy – where most of the kidney is left in place and only the cancer plus a safe margin of surrounding tissue is removed – or radical nephrectomy, where the whole kidney is removed. Which procedure is used depends largely on the size and position of the cancer, but kidney function is also taken into account.

If the cancer is in a good position for surgery, i.e. at the edge of the kidney and not in the centre, a partial nephrectomy is likely to be preferred. For larger cancers or cancers which are in a very unfavourable position, radical nephrectomy will be performed.

Lymph nodes immediately adjacent to the kidney and rarely also the adrenal gland will usually be removed as part of the same operation.
After the operation, all of the tissue removed will be examined by a pathologist to check for any secondary cancer.

One possible complication in advanced non-metastatic renal cell cancer is that the cancer can grow, via the renal vein, into the inferior vena cava (the main vein returning blood to the heart). Removing this type of cancer is very challenging and may require additional support from a heart surgeon.