Kidney Cancer Treatment Options at The Kidney Cancer Institute

Types of Kidney Cancer

Conventional Renal Cell Carcinoma
Conventional renal cell carcinoma was previously known as clear cell carcinoma. The designation clear cell carcinoma continues to be commonly applied. Conventional renal cell carcinoma accounts for approximately 70 to 80% of all kidney cancers. These tumors are commonly filled with blood vessels, and have a yellow irregular appearance when visualized.

Many conventional renal cell carcinomas particularly when identified and treated at a smaller size, are very curable. However, conventional renal cell carcinoma has a worse prognosis when compared to chromophobe and papillary renal cell carcinomas.

Although conventional renal cell carcinomas may have a more aggressive nature when compared to other kidney cancer variants, they also have the highest rates of response to systemic medications which are administered for metastatic (spread outside of the kidney) disease. Immunotherapy and tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapies have the best responses in patients with conventional renal cell carcinoma.

If you have been treated for a conventional renal cell carcinoma, you should discuss the result with your physicians. If the pathology report suggests that all of the kidney cancer has been removed, a ‘surveillance protocol’ should be initiated. A surveillance protocol simply means that a schedule of radiographic tests (eg. CT scans, MRIs, chest X-rays) and blood evaluations are scheduled at regular intervals to assure that there is no evidence of kidney cancer in the body.

If the staging or the pathology report suggests that the kidney cancer is outside of the tissue which has been removed from the body, your Urologist will typically coordinate with an oncologist to initiate an appropriate systemic regimen of medications.