Words to know: Kidney cancer
- Renal
- Having to do with the kidneys.
- Renal cell carcinoma (RCC)
- The most common kind of kidney cancer in adults.
- Clear cell
- The most common type of kidney cancer. The cells look clear under a microscope.
- Nephrectomy
- Surgery to remove all (radical) or part (partial) of a kidney.
- Active surveillance
- Watching a tumor closely with regular scans and treating only if it grows or changes.
- Ablation
- Destroying a small tumor with heat or cold through a needle.
- Adjuvant therapy
- Treatment given after surgery to lower the chance the cancer comes back.
- Biopsy
- Removing a small piece of tissue to check for cancer under a microscope.
- Benign
- Not cancer. A benign tumor does not spread.
- Grade
- How abnormal cancer cells look. Higher grade cancers tend to grow faster.
- Immunotherapy
- Treatment that helps your immune system fight cancer.
- Checkpoint inhibitor
- A type of immunotherapy that removes the brakes on immune cells. Examples are pembrolizumab and nivolumab.
- Targeted therapy
- Medicine that blocks a specific protein or signal that helps cancer grow.
- TKI
- Tyrosine kinase inhibitor. A targeted pill that blocks growth signals, including those that help tumors grow blood vessels.
- HIF-2 alpha inhibitor
- A pill, such as belzutifan, that blocks a protein that helps clear cell kidney tumors grow.
- VHL disease
- Von Hippel-Lindau disease. An inherited condition that raises the risk of kidney cancer and other tumors.
- Hereditary
- Passed down from parent to child through genes.
- Sarcomatoid
- Areas in a tumor that look more aggressive under the microscope.
- Risk group
- Favorable, intermediate, or poor. A way to describe advanced kidney cancer that helps choose treatment.
- Lymph nodes
- Small bean-shaped glands that are part of the immune system. Cancer can spread to them.
- Metastatic
- Cancer that has spread from where it started to other parts of the body.
- Contrast dye
- A liquid given before a scan to make pictures clearer.
- Oncologist
- A doctor who treats cancer. A urologist is a surgeon who treats the kidneys and bladder.
- Palliative care
- Care that eases symptoms and improves quality of life at any stage of illness.
- Clinical trial
- A research study that tests new treatments in people.
Last updated: 2026-10-27. Medically reviewed by Veli Bakalov, MD, medical oncologist (October 2026). General education from Step by Step, the patient portal of HemeOncBuddy.