Research

A significant amount of new, practice-changing information about kidney cancer has been published and presented over the last 18 months. It can be challenging for nurses, pharmacists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other clinicians to keep up with every update. No worries: a few members of the Kidney Cancer Association’s Clinical Advisory Board (CAB) conducted reviews for you and provided…

The Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) was created by Congress in 1992 to fund high-impact medical research—especially in areas overlooked by traditional sources—through the Department of Defense. CDMRP began with breast cancer research and has since expanded to support many conditions affecting both Service Members and civilians. https://www.kidneycancer.org/protect-federal-kidney-cancer-research-funding/ The CDMRP’s unique strength lies in backing high-risk, high-reward science: early-stage, innovative ideas that…

Welcome back to our blog series about kidney cancer clinical trials where we break down recent research into key updates for patients and others interested in advances in the field from the major cancer conferences including the 2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology’s (ASCO) annual meeting, the 2024 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) annual meeting, the 2025 ASCO genitourinary…

Dr. Toni Choueiri and Dr. Rizwan Romee received a KCA research award in 2021 for their project “Adoptive cytokine-induced memory-like natural killer cell therapy alone or in combination with avelumab for immunotherapy-refractory advanced renal cell carcinoma.” This technique could represent a new type of immunotherapy treatment Choueiri, Romee, and Dr. Vincent Xu, shared an update on their research, which has…

Update 3/27/25: Why We Must Restore Funding For the CDMRP Update 3/24/25: Kidney cancer will not receive any funding this year through the CDMRP. A recent STAT News article summarized the far-reaching impacts of the "devastating" 57% cuts to the CDMRP, which, instead of reducing some funding for the 35 disease research programs supported by the CDMRP, eliminated funding for…

We rounded up a few research highlights from the 2025 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium (ASCO GU), held recently in San Francisco, California. Three-drug combo superior to two drugs for advanced RCC Advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patients (855 people) given a combination of cabozantinib, nivolumab, and ipilimumab had longer progression-free survival compared with patients given nivolumab and ipilimumab plus a placebo –…

Oncology Decoded is a new podcast covering cancer research and how care providers might apply new ideas to their clinical practice with patients. Hosts Dr. Manojkumar Bupathi of Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers and Dr. Ben Garmezy of Sarah Cannon Research Institute are both medical oncologists who care for patients with genitourinary cancers (kidney, prostate, bladder) and conduct research. We spoke…

Attendees at the inaugural Advanced Urologic Cancer Consensus Conference (AUC3) met in Miami, Florida on January 23-24 to agree on optimal diagnostic and management strategies for kidney and bladder cancers. “Tremendous progress has been made in the treatment of patients with advanced urologic cancers, but experts believe critical questions remain that are unable to be answered by robust prospective clinical…

Angela Cappello, PhD, received a 2024 KCA Trailblazer Award for research on "Drugs resistance mechanisms guided by amino acids catabolism in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC)." Dr. Capello is part of the Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine at the University of Bari "Aldo Moro" in Bari, Italy. We spoke with her about her research and the impact it could have…

This year, the Kidney Cancer Association made headway on multiple research initiatives across a range of focus areas. Here are our top 10 achievements in 2024. Research Breakthroughs Patient-Centered HRQOL Measures for mRCC - Through KCA funding, Dr. Cristiane Bergerot of Grupo Oncoclinicas in Brazil has developed a patient-centered health-related quality of life (HRQOL) measure tailored to metastatic renal cell…