What are the treatment options for tumors that have spread to other organs?
When the tumor has spread to other organs, there have traditionally been four primary treatment options: nephrectomy followed by immunotherapy, initial treatment with immunotherapy, clinical research trials and surveillance. More recently, a new category of treatment has been added, namely treatment with drugs that block the blood flow into the cancer (anti-angiogenic agents, see below). Immunotherapy: Immunotherapy stimulates your immune system to attack cancer. Hopefully, the immune system will eliminate cancer in much the same way it eliminates the flu. The most commonly used immunotherapy agents are interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interferon. Until recently, IL-2 was the only effective therapy approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of metastatic kidney cancer. Approximately 20 percent of patients respond to immunotherapy with some degree of tumor regression. Approximately 5-7 percent of patients have complete cancer regression?most of those patients have been
