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In Treatment

Not much is known about the treatment of renal cell carcinoma in children; however, chemotherapy and radiation therapy have not been found to be useful in adults and are very unlikely to be useful in children.

Therefore, surgery is the treatment of choice. It is important to remove all of the tumor and if possible, all of the metastases.

For children with stage I, II, and III, no additional treatment is recommended, as long as all of the tumor was surgically removed. This is due to the relatively good outcome of localized renal cell carcinoma.

For children with stage IV disease, it is advised to try to remove all of the tumor, as long as this can safely be done. Treatment with immunotherapy such as interferon alpha and interleukin-2 or experimental clinical phase I or II studies are recommended. Numerous studies have demonstrated response rates of 10-20% with immunotherapy.

If imaging studies show that a tumor cannot be completely removed, a biopsy of the tumor is done. The biopsy is done to obtain tissue and confirm the cancer, and to determine the subtype and characteristics of the tumor.

Read more information about surgery.

Written and reviewed by: Susanne Ragg, MD, PhD; Deannie Lee, MD, PhD; Mary M Davis MD; James Hill, MD; Mercy Odueyungbo, B.S.; Ann Haddix, RN, MSN, CPNP; Jada Paine, MS; Julie Haydon, BS; Michelle Lucke, MPH; Elaine Skopelja, MALS, AHIP; Kellie Kaneshiro, AMLS, AHIP. Amber McMahon, B.S. Date last reviewed: August 2006.