Non-surgical treatment for kidney cancer

With the development of medicine, the treatment of renal cancer is no longer limited to nephrectomy. Non-surgical treatments such as immunotherapy, radiotherapy and chemotherapy can help eliminate cancer lesions and alleviate patients' pain.

1. Immunotherapy

Through immune active cells, the effects of cellular and antibody immune responses are expanded to enhance the host's anti-cancer ability. Specific immunity currently used in clinical practice includes: ① Immune RNA, which can shrink the lesions of advanced renal cancer, with an effective rate of 22% and few adverse reactions; ② Interferon, which inhibits intracellular protein synthesis through its cytotoxic effect on tumors, thereby inhibiting the division of tumor cells. Interferon can enhance the activity of natural killer cells and is currently the most effective drug for the treatment of metastatic renal cancer; ③ Interleukin-2, which can promote and regulate the immune function of lymphocytes and improve their therapeutic effect on advanced renal cancer.

2. Chemotherapy

Commonly used drugs for chemotherapy of renal cancer include: VLB, MMC, hydroxyurea, Eufodine, bleomycin, doxorubicin, 5-fluorouracil, cyclophosphamide and cisplatin, etc. The chemotherapy effect of renal cancer is relatively poor.

3. Radiation therapy

Currently, it is only used as an auxiliary treatment method. It is suitable for the following situations: ① Before surgical treatment of patients with rapid tumor expansion in a short period of time and obvious toxic symptoms, radiotherapy can shrink the tumor, reduce intraoperative bleeding and cancer cell spread; after radiotherapy, local edema and tumor blood vessels are reduced, which is helpful for separation and surgical operation; ② For patients with stage II and III renal cancer or lesions that have spread to adjacent organs and incomplete tumor resection, postoperative radiotherapy can prevent recurrence; ③ For patients with advanced renal cancer that cannot be surgically removed, radiotherapy can reduce local pain, hematuria and relieve toxic symptoms.