On treatment for kidney cancer: Library

During treatment, you may hear people mention complementary medicine. These are therapies, such as meditation, acupuncture, and herbs, that are used along with your prescribed treatment. They may help to reduce stress, lessen pain, or reduce nausea. It is important to talk with your healthcare team before starting any complementary medicines or therapies. Some people also find support groups or talking with a counselor to be helpful.

To the right are examples of organizations and resources you may find helpful. Click on the links to visit those websites and learn more.

Your healthcare team may use different tests to tell if treatment may be working. You may need to have these tests on a regular basis. These tests can also help the team keep track of your overall health during and after treatment. Some of the same tests may be the same as those you had to find the cancer, such as:

• Blood tests
• X-rays
• CT scan
• Ultrasound

Be sure to work with your healthcare team to understand your treatment and the tests you will need to help them know how you are doing.

To the right are examples of organizations and resources you may find helpful. Click on the links to visit those websites and learn more.

Clinical trials are used to find out more about potential treatments, such as the potential benefits and risks and for whom they may work. One group of people in the clinical trial will get the treatment being studied. The other group will get the treatment usually used to treat that type of cancer.

There are 3 phases of clinical trials:

• Phase I trials test how safe a dose is, how a treatment should be given, and how a treatment affects the body
• Phase II trials test to see if the treatment being studied has an effect on a specific disease and how it affects the body
• Phase III compares the treatment being studied with the treatment usually used to treat that type of cancer (standard of care treatment)

Click on the button below to go to the Clinical Trial Finder

To the right are examples of organizations and resources you may find helpful. Click on the links to visit those websites and learn more.