Kidney Cancer Research Alliance
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Kidney Cancer Research Alliance (KCCure) is a grassroots organization of patients, caregivers, doctors and medical researchers dedicated to eliminating suffering and death due to kidney cancer through increased funding to accelerate research that will lead to a cure for all patients and prevent future kidney cancer diagnoses.
Kidney Cancer Research Alliance
2w ago
The Kidney Cancer Research Alliance (KCCure) announced today that Brigham and Women’s researcher, Dr. Lisa Henske has been selected to receive the KCCure Chromophobe Research Grant Award of $50,000 for her proposal: Targeting KIT in Chromophobe Kidney Cancer.
This is the third annual KCCure research grant awarded for Chromophobe Renal Cell Carcinoma (ChRCC), and the second grant to be awarded to Dr. Henske. ChRCC is a rare subtype of kidney cancer accounting for roughly 5 percent of RCC tumors. When discovered early, this histological typ ..read more
Kidney Cancer Research Alliance
5M ago
Do you like dynamic radioactive cancer fighting agents and hate painful fractures from metastatic bone disease? Then RadiCaL might be the trial for you! This Clinical trial is actively recruiting and could greatly improve treatment for patients who have metastatic RCC that has spread to the bone.
Radium 223 dichloride is a radioactive drug that may directly target radiation to cancer cells, while minimizing harm to normal cells.
Combining this drug with cabozantinib, a drug already FDA approved to treat metastatic RCC, may help lessen the pain and symptoms from bone metastases.
The go ..read more
Kidney Cancer Research Alliance
11M ago
What do kidney cancer patients want from their therapy? They want a cure. Let’s Aim for a Cure.
The big news for kidney cancer doctors at ASCO 2023 may have involved updates from combination trials including CONTACT-03, KEYNOTE426, and CLEAR. For patients, I would say that the big news was this call to action from Dr. David Braun at Yale Cancer Center. Aim for a Cure!
Braun did a masterful job of highlighting just how far we have come in kidney cancer – starting with the cytokine era in the 1980s to molecularly targeted agents in the early 2000’s, the first approval of a checkpoint inhibitor i ..read more
Kidney Cancer Research Alliance
1y ago
The Kidney Cancer Research Alliance (KCCure) announced today that Dr. Elizabeth Henske and Dr. Carmen Priolo have been selected to receive the FY2022 KCCure Chromophobe Research Grant Award of $50,000 for their proposal: Role of Cysteine Homeostasis and Ferroptosis in the Therapy of Chromophobe RCC.
“We are absolutely thrilled to receive this wonderful support from KCCure,” said Drs. Henske and Priolo. “Our work will test the hypothesis that Chomophobe kidney cancer cells are hypersensitive to ferroptosis (a form of iron-dependent cell death). This partnership with KCCure ..read more
Kidney Cancer Research Alliance
1y ago
A data void exists when there is a high level of demand for information but little information exists. If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with a rare form of kidney cancer – you have entered a “data void.”
Two years ago, you had surgery for a large renal mass. When the pathology came back, “chromophobe renal cell carcinoma,” your doctor told you that you were lucky. Chromophobe renal cell carcinoma (ChRCC) is less aggressive than the most common type, clear cell RCC. It’s rare for ChRCC to recur after surgery.
Ironically, the fact that ChRCC is more indolent reduces the sense of urgency ..read more
Kidney Cancer Research Alliance
1y ago
When you wake up this morning, a calendar reminder pops up on your phone. You have an immediate sinking feeling. It’s two weeks until your scan. This is the first scan since you started adjuvant treatment. You feel good and haven’t had too many side effects. But in a weird way, that makes you wonder if the drug is even working. Some moments you feel confident and convinced that this scan will be clear. Other moments, the doubt creeps in and you start imagining what will happen if the scans show recurrent cancer. You try to do some breathing exercises that the counselor gave you, but they are ..read more
Kidney Cancer Research Alliance
1y ago
Stage 1 turns out to be Stage 3
You are home recovering from surgery when your pathology report arrives in your medical portal. What your doctor thought was a small, stage 1 renal cell carcinoma was actually a stage 3, grade 2, renal cell carcinoma. Even though the mass was small – less than 5 cm – it invaded the segmented veins – which means it is now stage 3.
You don’t fully understand what it all means – but it seems like a pretty big difference from where things stood prior to surgery, and you are feeling blindsided. Having stage 3 disease means that you are eligible for “adjuvant therapy ..read more
Kidney Cancer Research Alliance
1y ago
Since your kidney cancer diagnosis, you have been struggling emotionally. Your friends and family – the people you rely on the most – have responded in ways that you didn’t expect. Their comments are well intended – but they often come across as hollow and toxically positive.
When someone says, “be strong!” – it makes you wonder if they think you aren’t being strong. The words “be positive” feel the same way. Feeling anxious about your health and your future isn’t the same as “being negative.”
No one understands how you feel and that makes you feel even more alone. But today – everything ..read more
Kidney Cancer Research Alliance
1y ago
Over two hundred people in the United States will hear those words today.
Most kidney cancer cases are asymptomatic, so patients will be blindsided by the diagnosis. Many will learn of their disease after a scan for a totally unrelated issue. Often, they will be told about their diagnosis by a physician that they have never met, where no relationship has been established. In some cases, they will simply read about it on a radiology report.
A cancer diagnosis sets off a chain reaction of consequences.
Emotional Distress: Patients and their loved ones will deal with tremendous anxiet ..read more
Kidney Cancer Research Alliance
1y ago
UPDATE FROM ESMO
Data from the COSMIC 313 trial was presented on September 12, 2022, at the ESMO conference in Paris. Below is a recap and discussion of the data that was presented. The thoughts and views that I am sharing about this trial are my own personal opinions. I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice.
About the Trial
COSMIC 313 is a phase 3 clinical trial for kidney cancer patients who have not had any previous treatment for metastatic disease (first-line therapy). The trial tested the triplet of Cabometyx (cabozantinib) + Opdivo (nivolumab) + Yervoy (ipilimumab) to see i ..read more