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By D’Ann George, PhD, Medical Writer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUJDnoEfb0A Dr. Toni Choueiri discusses the COSMIC-313 trial. At the recent European Society of Medical Oncology congress in Paris, oncologists eagerly awaited results from the ground-breaking phase III COSMIC-313 trial for two reasons:  it tested the effectiveness of a three-drug combination - cabozantinib (Cabometyx) plus nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) - for the first…

We rounded up a few research highlights from the 2022 Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), held recently in Paris, France. Pembrolizumab/lenvatinib combo could be frontline treatment for non-clear cell RCC Findings from the phase II KEYNOTE-B61 trial showed combination treatment with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and lenvatinib (Lenvima) led to greater treatment response and disease control in people with…

Kathryn Nelson is an RN at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and a member of the KCA’s Clinical Advisory Board. In this Q & A, she talks about what radiation therapy is and when and why it might be used in the course of kidney cancer treatment. Kathryn Nelson, RN What is radiation therapy? Radiation therapy uses carefully targeted and…

The Kidney Cancer Association (KCA) awarded seven grants to researchers pursuing projects with the potential to improve kidney cancer treatment and care. “This year we restructured the KCA’s grant program to benefit up-and-coming researchers for whom this type of funding at this point in their careers would make a significant difference,” said Dr. Daniel George, a medical oncologist at the…

This is a guest post by Joel Stern, who was diagnosed with stage IV renal cell carcinoma in 2020. https://www.kidneycancer.org/stories/i-have-stage-iv-renal-cell-carcinoma/ It’s been a year since I wrote about my journey with Stage IV renal cell carcinoma where I tried (emphasis on “tried”) to convince all of you (as well as me) that despite my dire diagnosis with this disease, I…

This is a guest post by Kelly Hudak. Kelly is a wife, mom, and medical device rep based in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Spring of 2022 was an exciting time in our family – we celebrated my daughters 1st birthday, my 33rd birthday, I had just started a new job, and my husband Matt and I were discussing expanding our family.…

By D’Ann George, PhD, Medical Writer Allen Rogers dressed as a knight for a family costume party. On a recent Sunday afternoon, Allen Rogers was riding a Bobcat tractor around his 500 acre farm in South Carolina, a gathering place for his extended family. When he’s not working on the grounds of the farm or the " barndominium" there, he…

Welcome to our series on "Clinical Perspectives." Read the introduction. Dr. Daniel George By D’Ann George, PhD, Medical Writer In the old paradigm, based on chemotherapy, when a tumor grew while being treated with a drug, that meant the drug was no longer working to control the cancer and that was it. Time to move on to another approach —…

By Dr. Daniel GeorgeChair, KCA Medical Steering CommitteeMedical Oncologist, Duke University There is much more to managing kidney cancer than what guidelines say or what clinical trials can test. That’s why we’ve launched a new blog series. Clinical Perspectives will feature current practice trends from nationally recognized experts who treat people with kidney cancer every day. I’m excited to share…

As Steve Ruisi was rolled into surgery earlier this year for a radical nephrectomy, Frank Sinatra’s "My Way", coming through the speakers, seemed an ironic choice for an operating room. And now the end is here And so I face that final curtain... I did it, I did it my way. But when Ruisi’s surgeon came to check on him…