Update in cancer chemotherapy: genitourinary tract cancer, Part 1.

An update of the state of the art of cancer chemotherapeutic treatment of genitourinary tract cancer is described in this multi-part series. Included in the review are cancers of the kidney, bladder, prostate, testicle, ovary, uterus, vulva, and gestational trophoblastic neoplasms. Part 1 focuses on the kidney.In this heterogeneous group of tumors, the major triumphs of cancer chemotherapy are in the control of the less common of these tumors, namely, gestational trophoblastic neoplasms in women, in combination with surgery in the control of the embryonal cell cancer of the testis in men, and in combination with surgery and radiation therapy in the control of the Wilms' tumor in children. Important progress is being made in the control of the other tumors of the genitourinary tract with the use of cancer chemotherapy.