Renal Cell Cancer (cont.)

Medical Author:

Kush Sachdeva, MD

Coauthor:

Brendan Curti, MD

Medical Editor:

Winston W Tan, MD

Medical Editor:

Mary L Windle, PharmD

Medical Editor:

Koyamangalath Krishnan, MD, FRCP

Medications

The goals of drug therapy are to induce remission, to reduce symptoms, and to prevent complications.

Anticancer agents: Chemotherapy often has little affect in renal cell cancer. However, in a small minority of people, chemotherapy can relieve symptoms and sometimes delay growth of the cancer. The best chemotherapy drugs for renal cell cancer are as follows:

• Vinblastine (Velban, Alkaban-AQ)
  
  
• Gemcitabine (Gemzar)
  
  
• 5-fluorouracil (Adrucil)

Hormones: Hormone therapy shrinks renal cell cancer in fewer than 5% of cases. Medroxyprogesterone (Provera) is an example of a hormone used to treat renal cell cancer.

Biological agents: These agents are most often used in people with metastatic renal cell cancer.

• Interleukin-2 -Known by the biological name of aldesleukin (Proleukin)
  
  
• Interferon alfa-2a (Roferon A) and interferon alfa-2b (Intron A)
  
  
• Bevacizumab (Avastin) - Recently approved for colon cancer but is investigational at this time for renal cancer