Annual Report

Our Vision: A World Without Kidney Cancer
Our Mission: The Elimination of Death and Suffering From Renal Cancers

Since it was established in 1990, consistent with the vision of the organization’s founder, Eugene P. Schonfeld, Ph.D., the KCA’s plan of work continues to be executed in these primary areas:

1. Education
2. Research
3. Advocacy

A summary of the past year’s program service accomplishments

Patient & Medical Education

During the Fiscal Year ending October 31, 2012, we provided more than 50 education and support opportunities for patients, survivors, and caregivers in various U.S. cities, including a national meeting held at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, from which enduring educational materials were produced. We hosted online weekly informal Facebook Group chats for survivors and caregivers, and our Facebook presence has grown to include nearly 66,000 people from around the world. Last year, we launched KidneyCancer.me, a peer-to-peer collaboration website for patients, survivors, and caregivers. KCA developed and released two new patient-friendly smartphone educational applications for the iPad, iPhone, and Android platforms. We sponsored the Seventh European Kidney Cancer Symposium in Vienna, Austria  Hundred medical professionals attended. Later in the year, more than 200 people attended the annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium in Chicago. Patient advocates who attended this meeting prepared summaries of the medical presentations that are easily understood by patients and their families. From our suburban Chicago offices, we initiated one-to-one web chats, and mailed scores of information packets to families and we provided physician referrals to numerous patients. Our membership database includes people in the US, Canada, Mexico, and nearly 100 other countries. About 20,000 people receive our monthly newsletter by email and hundreds more watch “Kidney Cancer News,” our monthly video magazine produced using technology provided by a patient-donor.

Goal: Increasing our outreach to patients globally

How we accomplish this: By translating our publication, “We Have Kidney Cancer” into several additional languages and making it available online

Metric: Total languages supported to date is 13. We endeavor to add a new translation each year. Hungarian is the latest translation.

Goal: Increasing our outreach to medical professionals globally

How we accomplish this: By sponsoring at least two international medical symposia yearly.

Metric: A meeting is held annually in Chicago with another in a different European country each year. Attendance in Europe has increased substantially over time.

Research

Our Nurse Advisory Board completed a comprehensive revision of “We Have Kidney Cancer,” our patient publication that has grown to more than 100 pages, and that is now distributed around the world. Our partnership with EmergingMed has resulted in the referral of patients to sites conducting clinical trials. Our Nurse Telephone Information Service answered hundreds of calls from patients. We made grants to the AUA Foundation and to the ASCO Conquer Cancer Foundation to support the work of young investigators. We also made a financial commitment to support a project associated with the Kidney Cancer SPORE, based in Boston.

Goal: Increasing our knowledge about kidney cancer through sponsorship of research projects

How we accomplish this: By working collaboratively with the Kidney Cancer SPORE, and the ASCO and AUA research foundations to fund the work of young investigators.

Metric: The list of projects we have supported is published on our website, and at least two or more projects have been initiated each year for the past several years.

Advocacy

In our role as an advocate on behalf of patients, we continued collaborations with organizations such as, Cancer Leadership Council, Foundation for NIH, National Cancer Comprehensive Network, Patient Advocate Foundation, the National Coalition for Cancer Research, Friends of Cancer Research, and various groups concerned with improving the nation’s health care. We continued highly effective collaborations with institutions interested in conducting cancer research, including our CEO’s membership on NIH committees that are advisory to the Biomarkers Consortium, The Cancer Genome Atlas, and an NIH group dedicated specifically to renal cancers.

Goal: To identify common goals aimed ultimately at the elimination of death and suffering from all cancers

How we accomplish this: By striving to identify new opportunities for working collaboratively with other voluntary health organizations.

Metric: The number of relationships we have established continues to grow. As an example, in 2010 and 2011 we participated in various meetings in North America, Europe, Latin America, and Africa aimed at increasing public awareness of the need for improvement of public healthcare and the promotion of research.

Our capacity to attain these objectives, as well as being able to identify new ones, relies primarily on the level of public support for our mission. Monetary contributions are essential to this accomplishment. Even in the most difficult times, we strive to identify new sources of revenue, as well as identify new volunteers willing to assist us, so that our goals continue to be met. Our fulltime staff is very small, so volunteers are an essential sustaining asset.

This efficiency would not be possible without the dedication of our governing board, medical advisers, volunteers, and other collaborators who contribute selflessly to advance our objective: the elimination of death and suffering from renal cancers.

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For a list of officers and directors, click here | Audited Financial Statements | 2011-990.