Inherited Kidney Cancer: Genetic Counseling and Updates on Treatment
Learn about the most recent updates on the treatment and management of individuals at risk for kidney cancer, and the role of genetic counseling.
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Contact Information
New Patients
If you have not previously seen a doctor within the Mass General/Mass General Brigham:
Step 1. Obtain a medical record number (MRN).
Call the Mass General Registration & Referral Center to register as a patient and obtain an MRN: 866-211-6588.
Step 2. Call the Cancer Center new patient appointment line: 617-726-5130.
The schedulers can assist you in making the first available appointment with the appropriate physician. To help your call go smoothly, please have ready your:
Existing Patients
Call the Genitourinary Center scheduling line: 617-724-5197. They will connect you with your treatment team.
Support the Center Genitourinary Cancers
With your support, the team at the Claire and John Bertucci Center for Genitourinary Cancers is able maintain their commitment to quality patient care and advancing discoveries. Make a gift.
The Claire & John Bertucci Center for Genitourinary Cancers is one of the largest and most experienced centers in New England. Our specialists diagnose and treat kidney cancers including:
We also offer experienced care for those with or at risk for inherited or rare forms of kidney cancers including von Hippel-Lindau disease.
We offer patients the most advanced treatment options available for all stages of kidney cancer. Recent advances in available treatment include:
New patients are generally seen within a week of referral. At your first appointment, you will meet the genitourinary cancer specialists who will be involved in your care, including:
In addition, you may also see:
Our kidney cancer patients have access to both traditional and innovative approaches to the treatment of advanced kidney cancer. These include targeted therapies, which have revolutionized the care and prognosis of this disease. Our patients have access to new treatments through our clinical trials program, which is one of the most advanced in the region.
Minimally invasive surgeries reduce complications, shorten hospital stays, and speed patient recovery. Our patients benefits from experienced surgical teams who are experienced in traditional and minimally invasive procedures including radiofrequency ablation and laparoscopic nephrectomy.
Although radiation is not often required to treat cancer within the kidney, it may be used after surgery. In this case, we use the most current, safest techniques, including intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and intraoperative radiation. The latter is a form of radiation delivered to the surgical area once a tumor has been removed and while the patient is under sedation. Precision radiation, including proton beam therapy, may also be used if cancer has spread to other parts of the body.
Learn more about radiation therapy.
Clinical trials are research studies of new drugs, new combinations of drugs or already approved drugs being studied to treat patients in new/different ways. They may include new drug doses or new ways (schedules) to give the drugs. Clinical trials are run under strict guidelines. Their purpose is to help find out whether new cancer treatments are safe and effective or better than the standard (current) treatment.
Cancer is increasingly becoming a disease in which the genetic makeup of each individual cancer drives therapy. The Center for Genitourinary Cancers also has access to clinical trials involving these targeted therapy approaches.
Find listings of our current Clinical Trials for Kidney Cancer.
Meet our multidisciplinary team of kidney and genitourinary cancer specialists.
In this 2022 webinar hosted by Mass General Cancer Center & John Estrella Foundation for Cancer Research, learn about the most recent updates on the treatment and management of individuals at risk for kidney cancer. We also discuss the role of genetic counseling in understanding kidney cancer risk.
In this webinar 2021 hosted by Mass General Cancer Center and John Estrella Foundation for Cancer Research, speakers Othon Iliopoulos, MD and Jamie Jacobs, PhD present the most recent updates on the treatment and management of individuals at risk for kidney cancer including the latest research.
Learn more about our multidisciplinary Urologic Oncology team and its approach to a collaborative game plan for every patient.
Cancer is caused by malignant (cancerous) cells that grow and multiply without control. When cancer begins in the tissues of a kidney, it is called kidney cancer (or renal cancer).
We help to identify families that may have a hereditary renal (kidney) cancer syndrome.
Learn more about Mass General's Department of Urology.
Learn about the Genitourinary Program in the Dept of Radiation Oncology.
Learn more about the Center for Genitourinary Cancers.
A checklist of items to bring with you for your first visit and helpful information.
We offer a variety of education and support resources to help you and your family.
We offer a wide range of integrative therapies, workshops and support groups.
The Story Project is our effort to capture the stories from the people in our Mass General Cancer Center community.
This helped lead to new knowledge and breakthrough therapies.
Learn about the most recent updates on the treatment and management of individuals at risk for kidney cancer, and the role of genetic counseling.
Learn about the most recent updates on the treatment and management of individuals at risk for kidney cancer including the latest research.
Contact us to make an appointment or to learn more about our programs.