KCA Co-Leads a Special Kidney Cancer Session at Radiation Oncology Conference

The Kidney Cancer Association (KCA) and the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) partnered for a special joint session during the annual ASTRO meeting on September 30 in San Francisco, California.

The session brought together an international, multidisciplinary panel of experts to discuss the emerging role of stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR), a highly focused form of radiation therapy, to the primary renal cell carcinoma (RCC) – particularly for early-stage patients with localized disease who may be treated to cure.

“We were extremely happy to partner with ASTRO and work with leading experts to craft this important session,” said KCA’s Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Salvatore La Rosa. “Radiation is an increasingly important consideration for RCC treatment and we hope this is the start of even more collaborative work to help educate providers.”

Radiation therapy uses intense beams of radiation to kill cancer cells. Radiation is not as commonly used to treat kidney cancer compared with surgery to remove cancerous tissue in the kidney or systemic therapies that introduces drugs into the blood stream that target and kill cancer cells (targeted therapy) or encourage parts of the immune system to better target and kill cancer cells (immunotherapy). Kidney cancer cells have also been thought to resist radiation more than other types of cancer cells. However, continued research shows radiation may applied at many stages of RCC.

The joint session, called “ASTRO/KCA Joint Session: Stereotactic Radiotherapy and Renal Cell Cancer, Overcoming Radioresistance, and the Resistance to Radiate”, was designed to help attendees understand the current evidence supporting SABR despite perceived radioresistance, review how to perform SABR treatment and follow-up care, and discuss the role of new systemic therapy, surgery, and radiotherapy in oligometastatic RCC, in which the primary tumor cells from the kidney have spread to a limited number of places.

Shankar Siva, PhD, MBBS, FRANZCR of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Australia moderated the session, which included the following kidney cancer experts and topics:

• Nicholas Zarosky, MD, MS of University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio – “A Primer on Radiotherapy in Renal Cancer”
• Anna Bruynzeel, MD, PhD of VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands – “Technical Considerations, Response Assessment and Challenging Cases in Primary Renal SABR”
• Brian Shuch, MD of UCLA in Los Angeles, California – “Multidisciplinary Management from Urology”
• Raquibul Hannan, MD, PhD of UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas – “From the IROCK Experience in Primary RCC to Expanding the Role in Oligometastatic RCC”
• Rana McKay, MD of UCSD in San Diego, California – “Multidisciplinary Management from Medical Oncology”
• Chad Tang, MD of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas – “Case Discussions”

Panelist Dr. Chad Tang, a radiation oncologist at MD Anderson Cancer Center, said: “Modern radiation is a potent tool to control any cancer. At this time we are seeing a re-emergence of interest in radiation for RCC which is highly topical given the strides the field is making with advances in systemic therapy, imaging, and biomarkers.”