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The Kidney Cancer Association's newly launched KCA Mentorship Academy met for the first time ahead of the 2024 IKCS: North America meeting on November 6th in Louisville, Kentucky. 2024 Mentees, left to right: Dr. Allison May, Dr. Minas Platon Economides, Dr. Prateek Khanna, Dr. Adam Singer, Dr. Nazli Dizman. Dr. Wesley Yip was not present. The Academy includes six mentees…

This is a guest post by Salima Witt, survivor of stage 3b kidney cancer and member of the Kidney Cancer Association's Patient & Caregiver Advisory Council. People often ask me, "How are you still alive?" For those familiar with my story, the answer is clear. My name is Salima Witt, and I am here to share my miraculous journey as…

Dr. Yuexin Xu received a 2024 Kidney Cancer Association Trailblazer Award for research on "Characterization of tumor endothelial STAB1-mediated Treg recruitment into renal cell carcinoma." Dr. Xu is a researcher based at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. This is the second research grant Dr. Xu has received from the KCA. We spoke with her about her research…

The Kidney Cancer Association (KCA) will partner with Topline Bio, LLC for a new era of digital education and storytelling with and for healthcare professionals treating kidney cancer as well as patients and families impacted by the disease. This partnership solidifies our ability to create the sort of content that can revolutionize communication in our space by bringing easily digestible…

Dr. Laura Bukavina received a 2024 Kidney Cancer Association Trailblazer Award for research on "Assessing the Presence and Impact of Micro- and Nanoplastics Role in Renal Cell Carcinoma". Dr. Bukavina, a translational surgeon-scientist, is assistant professor of Urologic Oncology at the Cleveland Clinic Glickman Urologic Institute and translational science lead in GU oncology at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine…

Dr. Mitchell Hayes received a 2024 Kidney Cancer Association Trailblazer Award in partnership with the Michael and Ina Korek Foundation for research on "Tracing the Seeds of Progression: Spatial Transcriptomic Analysis of Immunoresistant Kidney Cancer". Dr. Hayes is a Urologic Oncology Fellow at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida. We spoke with Dr. Hayes about his research and the impact…

Dr. Elizabeth Ellis received a 2024 Kidney Cancer Association Chromophobe RCC Focus Award in partnership with the Chromophobe and Oncocytic Tumor Alliance for research on "Evaluating the Response of Chromophobe Renal Cell Carcinoma to Novel Targeted Metabolic Therapies". Dr. Ellis is a Urologic Oncology Fellow at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. We spoke with Dr. Ellis about her…

The Kidney Cancer Association (KCA) awarded five grants to investigators pursuing high-impact kidney cancer research across a variety of focus areas through its annual KCA Award Program. Each $75,000 award supports early- to mid-career investigators whose projects align with topics that require greater attention and understanding from researchers, doctors, and patients. In total, the KCA distributed $375,000 in research funds.…

We rounded up a few research highlights from the 2024 Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), held recently in Madrid, Spain. Belzutifan continues to outperform targeted therapy in advanced kidney cancer Belzutifan outperformed targeted therapy with everolimus in certain advanced kidney cancer patients, who experienced longer times till their tumors began growing again with the novel hypoxia-inducible factor 2a…

People with metastatic kidney cancer who already received one or two lines of treatment that included immunotherapy did not fare better when offered an additional round of immunotherapy after their cancer progressed. The results from the phase 3 TiNivo-2 trial, presented at the recent European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) meeting in Barcelona, Spain, compared combination treatment with the targeted…