Getting Diagnosed with Kidney Cancer

If you have been diagnosed with kidney cancer, it helps to know the kidney disease specialists at UMass Memorial Health Cancer Center provide the most advanced treatment options.

Kidney Cancer Symptoms

Our team works with a variety of specialists to evaluate the warning signs and early symptoms of kidney cancer, which may include:

• Recurrent fever
• A lump or mass in the kidney area
• Rapid weight loss
• A lingering dull ache or pain in the side, abdomen or lower back
• Feeling fatigued or in poor health

Kidney Diseases We Treat

• Renal cell carcinoma, the most common kidney cancer that accounts for nearly 80% of all kidney cancers
• Wilms’ tumor, a childhood cancer that accounts for nearly 95% of pediatric kidney cancer cases

Kidney Cancer Services We Provide

• Cryoblation or radiofrequency ablation (the use of heat or cold to treat a tumor)
• Radiation therapy
• Chemotherapy 
• Immunotherapy
• Targeted therapy (the use of drugs or other substances to attack cancer cells while doing little damage to normal cells)
• Kidney-sparing surgery 
• Radical or partial nephrectomy (removing all or part of the kidney, respectively, depending on the tumor size, location and stage of the disease)