Image-Guided Radiation Therapy for Renal Cell Carcinoma

The success of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) in treating cancer is well established. The initial wide success was in treating metastatic disease, but it has an increasing role in treating primary disease. Historically, renal cell carcinoma (RCC) was considered more radiation resistant than other histologies, but a favorable response is now consistently demonstrated with SBRT in the metastatic setting. There is slowly accumulating evidence in the treatment of primary disease that also appears quite favorable. SBRT does not have some of the same anatomic and size limitations of other focal treatments and as the only noninvasive treatment, has a promising future as a treatment for primary and metastatic cancer involving the kidney.