How Kidney Cancer is Treated There are treatments for most patients with renal cell cancer. Surgery is a common treatment of renal cell cancer. This is usually done only in special cases, such as when the other kidney is damaged or has already been removed. Simple nephrectomy removes the whole kidney. The kidney on the other side of the body can take over filtering the blood.
Radical nephrectomy removes the kidney with the tissues around it.
Some lymph nodes in the area may also be removed. 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.