Kidney Cancer Diagnosis & Treatment | AMO Oncology Centre

address Room 1311-1312, 13/F, Ocean Center, Harbour City, 5 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
Kidney cancer Treatment
Kidney cancer

Kidney cancer is a cancer caused by cancerous renal cells. The two most common kidney cancers are renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) in renal pelvis, whose names respectively indicate where canceration takes place. Different types of kidney cancers have different pathogenesis, and thus different long-term effects too. Meanwhile, early-stage kidney cancer shows no symptoms and patients need to pay more attention.

Treatment
Surgical excision
Doctors will remove kidney cancer cells by surgical methods, including total excision and local excision. For the long term, local excision is advisable to preserve renal functions and it can be conducted by cryotherapy, radiofrequency ablation and embolization.
Electrotherapy
High-energy rays are used to kill cancer cells mainly to relieve the symptoms of kidney cancer, such as pain and bleeding caused by tumor, and discomfort caused by metastasis to bones or the brain. However, efficacy of this therapy is not significant for kidney cancer.
Chemotherapy
In chemotherapy, a drug capable of killing cancer cells travels through the entire body along the blood vessels to destroy cancer cells outside the kidney. The side effects include hair loss, aphtha, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea or constipation, susceptibility to infection, and fatigue. But this therapy, like electrotherapy, has insignificant efficacy for kidney cancer.
Targeted therapy
First- and second-line targeted therapy drugs are sometimes used in combination, depending on the conditions of patients, to achieve the best efficacy.
Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy can be used in combination with chemotherapy, mainly by applying interferon and interleukin, to enhance patients’ immune response against the tumors. However, this therapy is only effective for 15-20% of patients.
Reference
  • 健康動力, 擊退腎癌, http://www.healthaction.com.hk/html/node/41978
  • 癌症資訊網, 腎癌全面睇專題健康講座, http://www.cancerinformation.com.hk/article_details.php?id=1433, 2015年9月30日
  • 臺北榮民總醫院, 腎臟癌治療準則, https://wd.vghtpe.gov.tw/hemaonco/files/Guide_KidneyCA.pdf