Kidney cancer starts in the kidneys. Kidneys, a pair of bean-shaped organs, apart from filtering blood, also removes excess water, salt, and minerals from the body, helps control blood pressure and ensures there are enough red blood cells for the normal functioning of the individual.

Kidney cancer refers to the development of a mass or tumor in the tubules of the kidney. A malignant tumor that is metastatic can spread from the kidneys to either the lymph nodes or to the bones, liver, lungs, brain, or other organs.

Understanding how this spreads, its associated symptoms, and diagnosing it with laboratory tests, CT scans, MRI screenings and X-rays help determine which stage the cancer is in.

Patients with advanced metastatic kidney cancers undergo diverse therapies, one after the other. The treatment alternatives for this includes surgery, immunotherapy and targeted therapy. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy are rarely used because they are not potent treatments for advanced kidney cancer, while targeted therapies are considered better alternatives.

Surgery is performed to remove cancerous growths from the kidneys and the metastasized tumors from other parts of the body to mitigate the gravity of advanced kidney cancer. Immunotherapy is where medication is used to activate and augment the body’s own immune system to fight off cancer or shrink it in size. Targeted therapy comprises the use of drugs to specifically target those particular molecules that contribute to the growth, survival, and spread of cancer cells, thus limiting the damage caused by them, while simultaneously preventing normal, healthy cells from being harmed.

Combining the many drugs used in targeted therapy – that is, those given before surgery, to help shrink tumors, prevent the cancer from spreading and enabling the kidneys to perform as normally as possible, and those given after surgery, to reduce relapse of the cancer – with each other or with other types of treatment, might be more beneficial in treating metastatic kidney cancer and enhancing the individual’s chances of responding positively in eliminating the cancer and reducing the side effects caused by it and the treatments related to it.