Your kidneys are two bean-shaped organs that are located behind your abdominal organs. Kidney cancer occurs when cancer cells form in the tissues of the kidney. There are a few different types of kidney cancer such as renal cell carcinoma and lymphoma. If you have kidney cancer hospitals are a great place to get renal cancer medical treatments and other drugs used for treatment of kidney cancer. Here are 5 medical treatments used to treat kidney cancer and it’s symptoms:

1. Radiation therapy

Radiation therapy is a treatment option for kidney cancer as it uses high-energy rays or particles to kill cancerous cells in the kidney. This type of treatment is typically only used if a person isn’t healthy enough to receive surgery or if they only have one kidney. Typically external beam therapy (EBRT) is used, a type of radiation therapy done from outside of the body, externally. This treatment option helps treat symptoms of kidney cancer such as pain, bleeding, or problems caused by cancer spread.

2. Ablation

Ablation is a type of cancer treatment that is done only if surgery is not possible. There are two types of ablation: cryoablation and radiofrequency ablation (RFA). Cryoablation is a procedure in which a hollow probe is inserted into the tumor and very cold gasses are injected, creating an iceball at the tip of the tube that destroys the tumor. RFA is a procedure in which a thin needle-like probe is inserted into the tumor then an electric current is passed through the tip of the probe which heats up the tumor and destroys the cancer cells.

3. Targeted drug therapy

While most targeted drugs can slow the progression of kidney cancer and shrink tumors they cannot cure kidney cancer. However, this treatment is often used in combination with other treatments in order to eradicate any cancer in the kidneys. Most targeted therapy drugs work by either blocking angiogenesis or tyrosine kinases, however some target both. A few drugs target the mTOR protein instead.

4. Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy is a procedure in which a patient’s immune system is boosted to help it recognize and destroy cancer cells more efficiently. An important aspect of the immune system is its ability to not attack healthy cells. In order to do this it looks for checkpoints in the DNA of cells to know which cells to attack. The issue is with kidney cancer some of those checkpoints will indicate to the immune system not to attack the tumor cells. So, immunotherapy works by getting the immune system to attack the cells with the same checkpoints as the tumor in order to restore immune response against the cancer.

5. Surgery

The most common type of surgery for those with kidney cancer is a nephrectomy—a surgery to remove part or all of the kidney. Removing the tumor or part or all of the kidney might also lessen symptoms such as pain and bleeding. Surgery is a popular option to treat and remove kidney cancer, however if no treatment is proving effective it is also used to relieve symptoms by removing the metastases.