Click here to visit Kidney Cancer Forum, an information sharing resource for families dealing with kidney cancer.  Patients, survivors, caregivers, and family members are welcome to join this moderated forum.

A tribute to Steve Dunn
In August 1989, Steve Dunn, a computer programmer, discovered he had kidney cancer.  He later learned that the cancer spread to his lungs and spine.  Although doctors believed he did not have long to live, Dunn found a clinical trial using interleukin-2 and interferon.

After his successful treatment, which ended in June 1990, Dunn decided he wanted to help people with kidney cancer.  He developed web-based information resources and began a collaboration with Kidney Cancer Association founder, Eugene P. Schonfeld, Ph.D.  Together, they helped people to find information about their disease and clinical trials.

“I was...outraged by what I had to go through to get highly promising, lifesaving treatment.  I believed my experience put me in a special position to help other patients,” Dunn said on his web site.

In 2003, Dunn became a Food and Drug Administration consumer advocate for kidney cancer clinical trials.  He was also co-administrator with Carol Greenhut, of the Kidney Cancer Association, and others, of an email list serve for kidney cancer patients.  Since then, this technology has been improved greatly, with the Kidney Cancer Association's launch of Kidney Cancer Forum, an interactive message board for patients, survivors, and caregivers that serves as a virtual community for more than 3,400 people.

Dunn was an outdoorsman, and in 1996, he met his goal of reaching 54 peaks in Colorado that are at least 14,000 feet.  He said it was “something I could not have even dreamed of in 1989.”

On August 19, 2005, Steve Dunn died at age 48 of complications from bacterial meningitis.  His story continues to inspire kidney cancer survivors.

Adapted from a Los Angeles Times obituary