There are treatments for most patients with renal cell cancer. Surgery is a common treatment of renal cell cancer. Simple nephrectomy removes the whole kidney. Radical nephrectomy removes the kidney with the tissues around it.
Chemotherapy uses drugs to kill cancer cells.
Chemotherapy may be taken by pill, or it may be put into the body by a needle in a vein or muscle. Chemotherapy is called a systemic treatment because the drugs enter the bloodstream, travel through the body, and can kill cancer cells throughout the body. Biological therapy tries to get the body to fight cancer. It uses materials made by the body or made in a laboratory to boost, direct, or restore the body's natural defenses against disease. Sometimes a special treatment called arterial embolization is used to treat renal cell cancer.