When surgery does not help in controlling the spread of renal cancer and its metastases and spreads to newer areas of the body, there are other treatment options available. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy are the popular, traditional options, while vaccine therapy is in clinical trials stage for treating advanced renal cell carcinoma. Targeted therapies are what doctors recommend as additional treatment options for treating renal cancer that is in the advanced stages.

Radiation therapy uses various types of high energy radiation depending on the location of the tumor in the body, to destroy the DNA molecules inside the cancer cells and targets the tumor specifically, thus preventing them growing and dividing further, and in the process provides pain relief to the patient.

When the renal cell carcinoma spreads to the bones, external beam radiation therapy is given to either prevent the weak bones from breaking or to heal a fractured bone. The temporary side effects of radiation therapy that lasts less than a year include dry, sensitive skin that could turn red sometimes. Depending on the area where radiation is given, constipation or diarrhea, anemia, low white blood cell count, vomiting, fatigue and urinary discomfort may also occur. In the advanced stage, when renal cancer spreads to the brain, radiosurgery, a non-surgical treatment where high dose radiation beams are directed to the brain tumors is the preferred treatment.

But this is used only for treating brain tumors that are of a particular size. Chemotherapy is used for patient’s part of clinical trials, in combination with other therapies, because it is not potent on its own. The reason for this is, renal cancer cells produce excessive multidrug-resistance-associated proteins that make the chemicals used to kill or slow the growth of malignant cells in chemotherapy ineffective. Vaccine therapy and stem cell transplants are both experimental treatments that are in the clinical trial stage and need to be researched more about before being declared fit for the general treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma.