Our mission is to abolish kidney cancer as a threat to the life and health of patients by supporting patient advocacy and research by supporting government and industry research funding, facilitating research collaborations, and offering direct financial support for clinical and laboratory researchers with promising ideas. Together, we can find the cure.
#KCRS20
KidneyCAN is proud to have hosted the second annual Kidney Cancer Research Summit, a meeting focused on basic and translational science, as well as cutting edge translational research. This work is fueled by the funding from the Department of Defense CDMRP – KCRP.
The Kidney Cancer Research Summit (#KCRS20) was scheduled for October 22nd-23rd in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Given the complications of COVID-19, we held a virtual conference instead. Despite the challenges, #KCRS20 was an incredible meeting of scientists and clinicians, attended by hundreds of people from 41 countries across the globe!
You can see all #KCRS20 presentations and videos at our event site, linked below. Questions? Contact us at [email protected].
District Days: Advocating for Kidney Cancer Research Funding from Home
On August 12-13, 2020, KidneyCAN organized our first District Days. 122 advocates from 29 states participated in 115 conference call meetings during this remote Hill Day. The KidneyCAN team designed, marketed, promoted, and operated the 2 day event for stakeholders in the kidney cancer community. Our partnering organizations included Joey’s Wings, Judy Nicholson Kidney Cancer Foundation (JNKCF), National Kidney Foundation (NKF), and VHL Alliance. The purpose of the event was as follows:
- To Draw Attention to & Build Awareness of kidney cancer.
- To Educate Policymakers (and staff) of the impact of kidney cancer on individuals, caregivers, families and other stakeholders.
- To Speak as One Voice for the kidney cancer community.
- To Thank Representatives for supporting issues impacting the community and to have a clearly articulated “ask” of legislators based on the legislative priorities of the kidney cancer community.
- To Represent multiple stakeholder constituencies from multiple states.
Funded Research
Proceeds from our Rock the Cure events have been used to explore exciting approaches to generate individualized vaccines for kidney cancer patients. The approach will use fresh biopsies from kidney cancer patients to accurately represent their current cancer immune profile. The cells are then cultured and multiplied using a novel cell culture technique and can serve in the future as the basis for a patient specific whole cell or RNA vaccine. The advantage of this approach is that it not only directs the immune system to the specific mutations of the tumor, but also other over expressed common and rare normal proteins and activated retroviruses. Thus, the full repertoire of targets for the immune system will be displayed. While vaccines in the past have been met with moderate benefit at best, they are now poised to synergize with the modern immunotherapy revolution of immune checkpoint inhibitors.
My death sentence was commuted by something called RADVAX — a clinical trial in its second phase being run by Dr. Hans Hammers, a recent Johns Hopkins transplant to UT Southwestern. The trial is being funded by KidneyCAN.
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Since our inception in 2016, we have proudly given over $725,000 to Kidney Cancer Research!
WE ARE A GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATION DEDICATED TO MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE KIDNEY CANCER COMMUNITY
Funded major projects to date include:
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RADVAX investigator led immunotherapy trial for 25 advanced kidney cancer patients at UT Southwestern combining Nivolumab, Ipilimumab and SBRT.
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Support of UT Southwestern’s Kidney Cancer Research Program. 1 of only 2 SPOREs (Specialized Programs of Research Excellence) for Kidney Cancer in the US.