Kidney Cancer Guide: Chemotherapy

Treatments

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Treatments List

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy refers to the use of drugs callled antineoplastic (anticancer) agents to destroy or stop the growth of cancer cells. Although chemotherapy is a mainstay of treatment for many types of solid tumors, it does not play a major role in the treatment of renal cell carcinoma because the kidney cancer cells are highly resistant to most antineoplastic agents.

To date, no single antineoplastic agent when used alone (monotherapy) has proven to be effective for the treatment of advanced RCC.

Combination chemotherapy with two or more anticancer drugs has also not proven to be highly effective for the treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma. Combination chemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil and gemcitabine has been reported to benefit some patients.

Another chemotherapeutic agent that has benefited some patients with metastatic RCC is Capecitabine (Xeloda). As mentioned previously, in some cases, chemotherapy may be combined with interferon-alpha immunotherapy for the management of metastatic RCC.