The kidneys are very important in keeping people healthy. Kidneys filter the blood sending waste products to be passed out of the body in urine. When the kidneys do not function effectively, the patient feels sick in many ways including being tired and feeling like they have the flu.When a person has kidney cancer, the cells of the kidney grow too fast. Sometimes when this happens, the cells cluster together and form a cancerous tumor. Renal cell cancer is the most common kind of kidney cancer. There are several common ways to teat kidney cancer including surgery and radiation.Common TreatmentsThe most common way to treat kidney cancer is surgery, usually a nephrectomy, which is the removal of the kidney or part of a kidney. The most common nephrectomy is a radical nephrectomy in which the entire kidney, adrenal glands, and some surrounding tissue are removed. Another form of nephrectomy is a simple nephrectomy in which the patient is in Stage 1 cancer and only the kidney is removed. The other common surgery is a partial nephrectomy in which part of the kidney is removed. This operation most often occurs if the patient only has one remaining kidney, or cancer is in both kidneys.An arterial embolization is another treatment that is fairly common. In this treatment a tube is place through the leg into the veins that supply blood to the diseased kidney and the blood supply is cut off, depriving the tumor of blood. Sometimes arterial embolization is used prior to surgery in order to make surgery easier.Radiation therapy is another localized kind of treatment for kidney cancer. This treatment is usually given at least five days a week for several weeks. High energy radiation is sent directly to the tumor killing it. Sometimes radiation is used to shrink a tumor prior to surgery, and sometimes it is used after surgery to insure that all cancer cells are killed.Chemotherapy is used some on kidney cancer, but it is not as successful as other treatments. Chemo is a systemic instead of target treatment, which makes it less effective. Doctors are working to try to find a chemo treatment that will work better in the treatment of kidney cancer.Like with any cancer, early diagnosis is important for having a positive prognosis. When the disease is diagnosed early and the treatment is aggressive, the survival rate of kidney cancer tends to be very high.