PROSTATE CANCER AND BLADDER CANCER
Kidney Cancer
Cancer of the kidney is usually treated with surgery. Radiation therapy is not used in most cases. Radiation therapy may be useful when tumor remains after surgery in an area that can be safely treated with radiotherapy.
When radiotherapy is likely to be safe and effective patients are usually treated with approximately 6 weeks of external beam radiotherapy with treatments given once a day, 5 days per week. Side effects of radiotherapy in this setting may include fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, and diarrhea. Medications are usually effective at controlling side-effects so that most patients tolerate radiation therapy well.
The chance of being cured of kidney cancer depends on may factors—most importantly, the size and extent of the tumor. In general, patients with small tumors that are confined to the kidney have a high (approximately 90%) chance of being cured, but those with tumors that extend outside the kidney are cured less than 50% of the time.
