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By D’Ann George, PhD, Medical Writer We rounded up a few research highlights from the 2023 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium (ASCO GU), held recently in San Francisco, California. Kidney cancer guidelines updates Dr. Shuchi Gulati of the University of California Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, summarized major recent changes in kidney cancer care guidelines, primarily from the 2023 National Comprehensive Cancer…

Dr. Brian Shuch A new way to scan and image renal masses has the potential to accurately determine if a renal mass is cancerous or benign before a patient needs to have surgery. The phase 3 ZIRCON trial successfully demonstrated both sensitivity and specificity – the two primary endpoints – for clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) using the zirconium-tagged…

By D’Ann George, PhD, Medical Writer Dr. Chung-Han Lee When talking to people about clinical trials, Dr. Chung-Han Lee, an oncologist and kidney cancer expert at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, hears many of the same concerns:  “Am I sick enough? Does this mean that I'm at the end of the line? Does doing a clinical trial…

By D’Ann George, PhD, Medical Writer https://www.kidneycancer.org/stories/clinical-trials-irb/ Mary Ferrara Naimo remembers the day when her oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Dr. Chung-Han Lee, talked to her and her husband, Al, about a clinical trial for a novel therapy in kidney cancer. After their discussion, Dr. Lee left the couple alone to decide whether or not Naimo should enroll.…

Richard “Rick Rock” Rodriguez spent years keeping the mass on his kidney a secret. A motorcycle accident uncovered the mass through a CT scan. Over the next two years, the mass grew significantly and Rodriguez had surgery in 2022 to remove the kidney. https://www.kidneycancer.org/just-diagnosed/ “I didn’t even know I had kidney cancer until after they removed my kidney,” he said.…

There is so much growth, transition, and advancement that can take place over a decade. In 10 years, major life events take place, political leaders change, new loved ones enter our lives while others’ time comes to a close. It’s a beautiful snapshot of the ever-evolving world we live in. And as the saying goes, the only constant is change.…

This is a guest post by Scott LeVeck. My name is Scott, I’m 54. My wife, Sherri, passed on July 25, 2022. She was also 54. And this is our journey. Scott and Sherri in their first grade class photo. Sherri and I have known each other since we were kids in school. In fact, Sherri is standing directly in…

This is a guest post by Susan Hoff-Angelin. https://www.kidneycancer.org/kidney-cancer-types/ My late husband, Don Hoff, was larger than life. He loved life and lived it to its full extent, so when we found out he had stage IV kidney cancer in 2009, he was determined to not let it change the person he was. He never asked, "why me" and never…

By D’Ann George, PhD, Medical Writer Standing on the bank of a waterway that winds through French Cajun Country in Louisiana, Keith Thibodeaux felt such intense vertigo, he feared he might fall into the water. His first impulse was to deny what he was experiencing. Since his clear cell, renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) diagnosis and nephrectomy in 2020, Thibodeaux had…

By D’Ann George, PhD, Medical Writer Marie Langhorne, center, with her daughters. When Marie Langhorne first felt pain in her right leg, in the fall of 2018, she was sitting in her office at Catawba College, in Salisbury, NC, where she has taught French since moving to North Carolina from New Orleans. Growing up in Normandy, France, Langhorne says she…