Chemotherapy for kidney cancer, as one of the methods of treatment

Chemotherapy for kidney cancer is considered a method of treatment, involving the use of drugs that have a harmful effect on malignant cells, killing them or slowing their growth. Despite the accepted standards of oncology treatment, chemotherapeutic drugs, kidney tumors show high resistance to their effects.

Currently, the most effective treatment for pathology is a surgical operation. Depending on the location of the tumor, its size, prevalence, removal of the organ - nephrectomy, or partial excision within a healthy parenchyma - is required. The operation is performed openly or laparoscopically. In practice, radiofrequency ablation is successfully used, which is a method of treatment when the tumor is destroyed by a special instrument under ultrasound control. Such treatment helps to remove cancer even in those patients in whom a classical operation can not be performed in connection with contraindications.

This is important! The tumor of the kidney is practically not sensitive to chemotherapeutic drugs, but they allow to prevent metastases and relapses of the disease, especially with simultaneous realization with other medications.

The essence of chemotherapy

Chemotherapy for neoplasm consists in the use of special medications that, after getting into the bloodstream, affect the human body as a whole, and therefore are considered systemic treatment. Oncology of the kidney is highly resistant to chemotherapy. Currently, researchers are developing all new tools to effectively treat kidney cancer, metastasis of the disease and prevent its recurrence.

Possible side effects of chemotherapy

Cancer cells tend to rapidly proliferate, and the effects of chemotherapy presupposes the destruction of rapidly multiplying cells. Due to the fact that after entering the blood, chemotherapy penetrates the body, it can affect not only directly on the kidney and malignant tumor.

Usually, such drugs most affect the blood cells, the stage of reproduction in the bone marrow, hair follicles, epithelial cells with which the gastrointestinal tract is lined, the reproductive system. Sometimes medicines damage healthy lung tissue, kidney, heart, nervous system and bladder tissue.

Side effects are not typical for every patient who undergoes chemotherapeutic treatment. The severity of manifestations of negative consequences is strictly individual and depends on the features of the structure of the human body. The duration of manifestation of negative results is also different - some manifest only until the end of chemotherapy, the rest - remain for a long time.

The most common side effects are: nausea in vomiting, hair loss, weakness of the body, hearing impairment, large bleeding, lack of appetite, febrile condition, inflammation and erosion in the oral cavity, peptic ulcer damage to the stomach and intestines, etc.

Implementation of effective treatment of

Conditionally all methods of treating renal oncology can be classified into therapeutic and surgical ones. Speaking of surgical intervention, it is a classic open surgery, when through a large incision the doctor gets access to the organ and removes the tumor or completely the kidney with the adjacent structures.

Surgical intervention is the most effective method and it is attempted to be realized even if regional and distant metastatic lesions are detected, as it significantly increases the life expectancy of patients.

The following types of operations are performed:

1. Radical nephrectomy - the kidney, its fat capsule, adrenal gland and lymphatic regional nodes are removed by one block.
2. Extended nephrectomy - in addition, the tumor is removed on the organs when they are affected.
3. Resection of the kidney - is realized with a small tumor - usually up to 3 cm in diameter.

This is important! The same methods can be performed laparoscopically, that is without a large incision with the use of specialized instruments through small punctures in the wall of the peritoneum. To conduct such operations, the medical institution must be equipped with the necessary equipment.

Recently, the treatment of oncology has been increasingly used, especially the treatment of kidney cancer of the 4th stage with the help of radiofrequency ablation of the kidney tumor. Such treatment is mainly realized for those patients for whom it is impossible for some reason of open or laparoscopic surgical intervention. The essence of the method consists in the introduction of a special instrument under the control of ultrasound and subsequent destruction of the tumor neoplasm. To organize radiofrequency ablation, you do not need to make a large incision, because the thickness of the instrument is not more than three to four mm. This treatment makes it possible to eliminate the tumor even in people with contraindications to surgical intervention.

If we talk about therapeutic treatment, it should be noted that the chemotherapy or radiation used to treat cancer of various organs, is practically ineffective in the development of a tumor in the kidney. But for the organization of oncology treatment in the third or fourth stage of development, modern immunotherapy or targeted therapy, which are subspecies of chemotherapy, is used.

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