Goal of Biological Therapy for Kidney Cancer

This treatment is also called immunotherapy. The goal of biological therapy is to treat the cancer and reduce the chance that it will spread to other parts of the body. This treatment uses proteins made in a lab. These proteins are also made naturally by your immune system. The specific kinds of proteins are called cytokines. You may also hear them called biologics. These proteins work by getting your own immune system to better recognize and attack kidney cancer cells.

Here’s how you may get biological therapy.

• By itself after you’ve had surgery

• With chemotherapy after you’ve had surgery

• With radiation after you’ve had surgery.

The most common biological therapy for kidney cancer is called cytokine therapy. This treatment uses proteins that boost the immune system. These are the 2 main proteins.

• Intron A or Roferon A (interferon alpha)

• Proleukin (interleukin-2)