X-ray studies are helpful before surgery, as they will provide the surgeon with a road map in locating the tumor and facilitating its removal. After the diagnosis of kidney cancer is made, the main treatment involves the surgical removal of the tumor, since there is no other way of reliably eliminating this type of cancer from a patient. For patients who have kidney tumors that are confined to the kidney itself, removal of the kidney offers the best chance for a cure. These risks are often amplified in patients who are elderly, who have poor kidney function, who have tumors in both kidneys, or who have cancer that has spread throughout their body. For patients with these risk factors, other treatments might be preferable.
Radical nephrectomy is considered to be the gold standard of therapy for kidney cancer.
Ideally, the tumor should be small and confined to the kidney, although some patients can benefit from the surgery even if there is some local spread of the cancer beyond the kidney itself. Although it is considered aggressive, the removal of the entire kidney is usually required since many, extremely small kidney tumors can sometimes be found that are separate from the main tumor. If these small tumors are left behind, they can grow over time and cause significant trouble for the patient. Removal of the entire kidney can cause problems in a patient who only has one kidney, or where the kidneys are not functioning well or if there are tumors in both kidneys. By doing this, a patient can avoid having dialysis.