New Treatments For Kidney Cancer

New Treatments For Kidney Cancer

The following treatments are still being researched to see how they can be used to treat kidney cancer in the most effective way. They are only available in some specialist hospitals. If your doctor feels that any of these treatments may be helpful in your situation they can refer you to a specialist hospital that carries out the treatments. You may have to travel a long way to the specialist hospital.

Percutaneous radiofrequency ablation (RFA)

This treatment uses heat to destroy the cancer cells and may be used for people who have small kidney tumours, or people who cannot have surgery. RFA is still being evaluated as a treatment of kidney cancer, and at the moment it is not clear how well the procedure works.

Before the treatment you will be given a sedative drug to make you feel drowsy. A local anaesthetic is then used to numb the skin of the abdomen. One or more electrodes, like fine needles, are then inserted through the skin into the centre of the tumour. An electrical current is passed through the needles and into the tumour, which heats the cancer cells and destroys them. Side effects include pain in the treatment area and bleeding. The treatment may need to be repeated.

Monoclonal antibodies

Monoclonal antibodies are drugs that recognise and attach to certain proteins found on the surface of some types of cancer cells. They can stop the cancer cell from developing or prevent it from forming a new blood supply. A number of different monoclonal antibodies are being researched as possible treatments for advanced kidney cancer. Your specialist can give you information about any that may be appropriate for you.

Thalidomide

Thalidomide is being researched as a possible treatment for some types of cancer, including cancer of the kidney. Thalidomide works by preventing cancers from developing new blood vessels so that they are starved of oxygen and nutrients and either shrink or stop growing. Drugs that interfere with blood vessel growth in this way are known as angiogenesis inhibitors. Thalidomide may also help to improve some of the symptoms that people with cancer have.

Side effects of thalidomide include nausea, constipation and numbness or tingling in the hands or feet (peripheral neuropathy).

(from cancebacup.org.uk)