Research

Below are some of the research highlights from the 2023 American Urological Association Annual Meeting held on April 28 - May 1 in Chicago, Illinois.  https://www.kidneycancer.org/stories/ascogu23-zircon/ Successful imaging of very small renal lesions New data from the phase III Zircon trial on small renal mass diagnostic imaging showed the ability to differentiate cancerous lesions from non-cancerous ones in a subgroup of very…

In a changing kidney cancer treatment landscape where immunotherapies and combination therapies have become more common as first-line treatments for patients, a number of presentations at the 2023 American Urological Association Annual Meeting held in April in Chicago, Illinois addressed where cytoreductive nephrectomy, which is surgery to remove kidney tumors in patients with metastases, fits in now and in whom…

By D’Ann George, PhD, Medical Writer A nephrectomy is surgery to remove all or part of a kidney, but when someone has surgery to remove a kidney tumor that has metastasized (spread) to other areas, the name for the procedure is called a cytoreductive nephrectomy. In years past, this procedure provided the best option to prolong survival for people with…

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 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…

Dr. Yufei Wang received a 2022 KCA Trailblazer Award for her research on "Design of CAIX Targeted Fine-Tuned Immune Restoring Safe (FIS) CAR-T Cell Therapy for Metastatic Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma (ccRCC)". Dr. Wang is a postdoctoral fellow at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. We spoke with Dr. Wang about her work and the impact it can have on people…

Dr. Sheldon Holder received a 2022 KCA Trailblazer Award for his research on the "Exploration of the causes and effects of increased PIM1 kinase activity in renal cell carcinoma". Dr. Holder is a physician-scientist at The Legorreta Cancer Center at Brown University. We spoke with Dr. Holder about his work and the impact it can have on people with kidney…