Expert Kidney Cancer Care

The Midwest’s most experienced robotic kidney cancer surgeons.

When you’re diagnosed with kidney cancer, you want the most experienced specialists on your care team. At Henry Ford Cancer, our team has performed more than 4,000 renal surgeries and pioneered a kidney-sparing surgical procedure, called robotic partial nephrectomy. We’ve also developed innovative techniques to preserve kidney function during surgery and to shorten your hospital stay.

Our team treats more than 250 patients each year for kidney cancer and other cancers that can develop in the renal system. As our patient, you can expect:

• A personalized treatment plan based on your needs and a thorough review of your diagnosis by our tumor board 
• A team of kidney cancer specialists – urologists, surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists and pathologists – working together for you
• Minimally invasive robotic surgical options to save the kidney and preserve kidney function
• A dedicated kidney cancer nurse navigator to support you throughout your care and assist with appointment scheduling

Our team will be with you every step of the way to provide the answers and resources you need throughout treatment and recovery, as well as a survivorship clinic  to manage your post-treatment care.

Your kidney cancer treatment plan

Our kidney cancer care team will create a personalized treatment plan  based on your cancer diagnosis, your health needs, and your concerns. We use the most advanced surgery techniques, including kidney-saving surgery whenever possible, to offer you the best outcome.

Your treatment may include:

• Minimally invasive robot-assisted surgery, including robotic partial nephrectomy, which removes the cancer while preserving the normal and unaffected portion of the kidney
• Cryoablation, a nonsurgical treatment that freezes and destroys small kidney tumors
• Traditional open surgery, which is needed in rare cases where tumors are large, complex, or invasive
• Advanced chemotherapy treatments to help shrink kidney cancer tumors that have spread (metastasized) to other areas of the body
• Clinical trials

Our team, led by Dr. Craig Rogers, continuously works to develop new treatment options, for even the most advanced kidney cancers. Dr. Rogers also leads our von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) clinic, which brings together experts from more than a dozen specialties to help patients navigate this complex, hereditary cancer syndrome. We have been recognized as a VHL Clinical Care Center by the VHL Alliance.

We also performed a world-first procedure for metastatic kidney cancer. The procedure involved suctioning a kidney cancer tumor from a patient’s vena cava (a vein that carries blood into the heart), followed by minimally invasive surgery to remove the kidney. The patient then participated in a clinical trial that involved using genetic material from the tumor to produce a vaccine to fight the disease.