Radiation Therapy For Renal Cell Carcinoma

Renal cell carcinoma rcc is a type of kidney cancer.

Radiation therapy for renal cell carcinoma.

Radiation therapy may be given before during or after these other treatments to improve the chances that treatment will work. Radiation doesn t work very well on kidney cancer. Stereotactic radiosurgery and stereotactic body radiation therapy sbrt have led to a resurgence of the use of radiotherapy in the management of advanced renal cell carcinoma rcc. It is very rarely used alone to treat kidney cancer because of the damage it causes to the healthy kidney.

Read about survival rates treatment and stages. Radiation therapy uses high energy rays or particles to destroy cancer cells. When symptoms and signs appear they include constant back pain fatigue anemia weight loss intermittent fevers a lump on the lower back side and blood in the urine. You can receive the therapy in one to five daily treatments and igrt works well with chemotherapy or between chemotherapy cycles.

Radiation therapy is often used to help with symptoms of kidney cancer or in patients who cannot have surgery. Radiation is sometimes used to treat kidney cancer if a person is not healthy enough to have surgery or has only one kidney. But it might be an option if you can t have surgery. When radiation therapy is used to treat kidney cancer it is usually external beam therapy ebrt which focuses radiation on the cancer.

Surgery targeted therapy immunotherapy chemotherapy radiation therapy and more. Radiation therapy is used only if a patient cannot have surgery and even then usually only on areas where the cancer has spread and not on the primary kidney tumor. It is sometimes used to treat kidney cancer. Often rcc has no initial symptoms.

The radiation dose is precise and very concentrated which is the best way to eliminate kidney cancer cells. Radiation therapy is not effective as a primary treatment for kidney cancer. Your healthcare team will consider your personal needs to plan the type and amount of radiation and when and how it is given. Sometimes other treatments will be tried first instead.

The timing of when radiation therapy is given depends on the type of cancer being treated and whether the goal of radiation therapy is to treat the cancer or ease symptoms. Learn about the treatment options for kidney cancer. These techniques provide excellent local control and palliation of metastatic sites of disease with minimal toxicity.