KIDNEY CANCER THERAPY

Therapy and Prevention

The following help prevent renal cell carcinoma:

Quit smoking

Avoiding certain groups of painkillers (e.g. painkillers containing phenacetin, e.g. paracetamol)

Weight loss

Preventive examinations for patients with severe kidney weakness / kidney failure (terminal kidney failure), cystic kidneys, von Hippel-Lindau syndrome, tuberous sclerosis

In the case of renal cell carcinoma / kidney cancer that has not yet spread, the standard therapy is surgical removal of the tumor (radical tumor nephrectomy) including the kidney, adrenal gland and adjacent lymph nodes. If necessary, affected parts of the vessel are removed and provided with a vascular prosthesis (replacement piece for vessel incisions).

The operation also has advantages for existing daughter tumors: so-called paraneoplastic symptoms (signs of disease that are not directly caused by the tumor or its daughter tumors, but are related to the occurrence of the tumor; e.g. increased sedimentation rate 56%, anemia 36%), as well as tumor-related Pain and Bleeding are decreased. Individual metastases can also be removed. In patients who only have one kidney from the start, this is only partially removed.

A local recurrence, i.e. H. another tumor in the same place, is removed again as far as possible.
The benefit of adjuvant therapy (subsequent chemotherapy, hormone therapy, radiation therapy, etc.) has not been proven. Interventions that aim not to cure the symptoms but to alleviate the symptoms (palliative interventions) are removal of metastases from the lungs, brain and bones.

Renal cell carcinomas are unresponsive to radiation or chemotherapy.

Note treatment

New treatment approaches are offered with "biological response modifiers“Are promising.

A more recent development is the use of so-called "biological response modifiers", which intervene in the patient's immune system in order to treat the tumor.
There are messenger substances of the Immune system (Interleukin-2, tumor necrosis factors) are used, which restrict the growth of tumor cells and mark them as a target for cell-killing (cytotoxic) T lymphocytes and macrophages (the body's own defense cells). These white blood cells (leukocytes) ensure that the tumor cells destroy themselves (apoptosis) or actively participate in the destruction (e.g. through phagocytosis).
The positive effects but are usually quite short and usually do not outweigh the observed side effects. They can be suitable for palliative treatment.