The Kidney Cancer Association Grants 2026 Research Awards to Advance Kidney Cancer Research and Improve Patient Outcomes

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The Kidney Cancer Association (KCA) awarded eight grants totaling nearly half a million dollars to researchers pursuing innovative approaches to understanding, detecting, and treating kidney cancer.  

The awards reflect the KCA’s commitment to advancing discoveries that can lead to better outcomes for people impacted by kidney cancer. They also highlight the power of collaboration among patient advocacy organizations, philanthropic foundations, and research funders to support promising investigators and address critical gaps in kidney cancer research.  

The KCA, along with leading foundations and advocacy organizations, distributed a total of $495,000.   

“Research is foundational to progress for people living with kidney cancers and it is one of the KCA’s mission pillars,” said Gretchen E. Vaughan, President and CEO of the KCA. “I am incredibly proud of this year’s applicants and the creativity and scientific excellence reflected in their proposals. Together with our partnerships and thanks to generous funders, we can invest in promising ideas and help move the needle in kidney cancer research and bring hope to patients and families.”  

“We need scientific rigor and bold thinking to address the most pressing challenges facing kidney cancer patients today,” said Dr. Salvatore La Rosa, the KCA’s Chief Scientific Officer. “The KCA is uniquely positioned to bring together like-minded research institutes, philanthropists, and fellow advocacy organizations to identify innovators who may otherwise go unfunded and support them in turning their ideas into reality.”  

Dr. Mitchell Hayes of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute received a Trailblazer Award for research to identify where different genes are expressed in a tissue sample, which could predict if a kidney cancer patient responds to immunotherapy. This funding was an extension of the same award he received in 2025 funded together with the Michael and Ina Korek Foundation, representing an opportunity to continue with a promising line of inquiry.  

The Korek Foundation co-funded an additional Interdisciplinary Medicine Focus Award for Dr. Syed Muneeb Alam at the Yale School of Medicine examining how obesity, a known kidney cancer risk factor, and the use of glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) class of anti-obesity drugs, may interfere with key immune cells and impact kidney cancer treatment efficacy.  

“We are thrilled to continue our support of Dr. Hayes’s promising research and to co-fund Dr. Alam’s exciting work, together with the KCA,” said Brian Korek and Alek Peterlin of the Korek Foundation. “These investigations tackle questions that are increasingly relevant to patients. The Korek Foundation is committed to making a meaningful difference for patients and families and we hope these projects yield discoveries that lead to better outcomes for people living with kidney cancer.”  

Dr. Wenxin (Vincent) Xu received the Dr. Anthony Marzoni Papillary RCC Focus Award supported by Joy and Zack Pearlman. Dr. Xu’s research explores whether the novel kidney cancer biomarker protein KIM-1, detectable through minimally invasive blood tests, can identify the rare kidney cancer type papillary renal cell carcinoma (RCC) at scale.  

“Joy and I are honored to support Dr. Xu’s innovative research,” Zack Pearlman said. “We are excited to play a role in extending our understanding of papillary RCC and supporting work that brings us closer to a cure, and we look forward to helping amplify Dr. Xu’s impactful findings.” 

The Chromophobe and Oncocytic Tumor Alliance, founded by kidney cancer survivor, advocate, author, and speaker Katie Coleman, supported two Chromophobe Focus Awards for Dr. Omar Abdel-Wahab of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Dr. Yujin Chun of the University of California, Irvine for research to confirm which chromophobe RCC cell surface proteins can best attract cancer-destroying immunotherapy treatments and whether blocking production of certain cell-building fats can interfere with chromophobe RCC cell growth, respectively.  

“We’re at a pivotal moment for chromophobe kidney cancer, with discoveries and potential trials closer than ever before” Coleman said. “We’re incredibly excited to support this year’s awardees and their research efforts, which will help build on this momentum and bring us closer to turning these discoveries into much-needed advancements for patients.” 

Dr. Brian Crompton at Dana-Farber Cancer Center received the Trailblazer Pediatric Renal Tumor Collaborative Impact Award given in partnership with three other advocacy organizations: Elevate Childhood Cancer Research and Advocacy, Wipe out Wilms, and Joey’s Wings Foundation. The $75,000 collaborative award reflects a shared commitment to addressing priorities identified by families and accelerating research that could improve how pediatric kidney cancers are detected, understood, and treated. 

Dr. Crompton proposed developing a liquid biopsy or blood test that “reads” fragments of tumor DNA and identifies if there could be cancer and what type it could be more quickly and, crucially, without surgery or a biopsy. He also hopes to find any high-risk features of Wilms tumors, the most common type of pediatric kidney cancer, so that children can be treated only as intensely as necessary.  

“For families facing a pediatric kidney cancer diagnosis, this research represents the possibility of getting better information earlier and making more precise treatment decisions for each child,” said Dr. Robyn Spoon, Founder and CEO of Elevate Childhood Cancer Research and Advocacy. “At the 2025 Pediatric Renal Tumor Roundtable at the KCA’s International Kidney Cancer Symposium: North America in Denver, Colorado, leading pediatric oncologists, surgeons, researchers and advocates identified liquid biopsy as an important research priority. As we continue to build consensus and understanding across the pediatric renal tumor community, collaborative investments across organizations allow us to turn shared priorities into action.” 

In a new partnership with the Rising Tide Foundation for Clinical Cancer Research (RTFCCR), the KCA/RTFCCR Award for Early Detection and Diagnosis of Kidney Cancer was granted to Dr. Daniel Shapiro of MD Anderson Cancer Center for combining blood-based biomarkers with clinical information about kidney tumors to improve individualized treatment after surgery – intensifying treatment for patients who need it while sparing those who don’t from unnecessary treatment and side effects.  

Q & A: Dr. Sidi Chen, KCA-CRI CLIP Grant Recipient

“RTFCCR’s collaboration with KCA is a natural extension of the strong alignment between our foundations. Our shared commitment to patient-centered care, accelerating the next breakthrough, and addressing unmet clinical needs has brought us here. We are especially proud to support Dr. Shapiro’s project together” said Zoraide Granchi, PhD, senior scientific program manager of RTFCCR. 

Dr. Sidi Chen of the Yale Cancer Center progressed to the second year of the 2-year Clinical and Laboratory Integration Program (CLIP) award provided in partnership with the Cancer Research Institute. Dr. Chen continues his research to understand how CAR-T cell therapy could be used more effectively to destroy cells in solid tumors like kidney cancer.  

“Congratulations to our 2026 slate of Research Award recipients,” Dr. La Rosa said. “More and more organizations are joining KCA’s initiatives, placing their trust in our work and sharing our vision for a better future for everyone affected by kidney cancer. We are proud and grateful to see this momentum grow as our collaborators help turn that shared vision into action. We are #UnstoppableTogether!”  

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2026 KCA Research Award Recipients