CancerConnect provides updates on the advances in the management of renal cell cancer for national kidney cancer awareness month. According to statistics from the American Cancer Society (ACS), kidney cancer is one of the ten most common cancers in both men and women and will be diagnosed in over 65,000 people in 2019.(1)
The treatment of advanced kidney cancer has improved dramatically over the past 30 years. Doctors initially used very primitive immune therapies with significant side effects and now used precision cancer medicines and immunotherapies that target specific genomic abnormalities which are now being combined into treatment regimens.
Average overall survival has increased from less than a year to over 4 years and these newer targeted therapies delay cancer recurrence and are associated with fewer side effects. Treatment options have increase to over a dozen drugs approved and more regimens coming.
LEARNING MORE ABOUT KIDNEY CANCER
Knowledge is power. Are you facing a new diagnosis, recurrence, living with metastatic disease, or supporting a loved one through their cancer journey?
- Sign up for monthly newsletters on kidney cancer here.
- Get treatment news updates and the facts about kidney cancer.
- Join ongoing discussions with other individuals affected by kidney cancer in the CancerConnect private online kidney cancer support group here.
- Follow CancerConnect on Facebook
PATIENT PROFILES
Profile of Katherine Phillion who was diagnosed with kidney cancer as a young adult at age 32. Active on Capitol Hill and with the Kidney Cancer Association, Katherine is a patient advocate who resides in Houston with her husband and daughter. Watch here.
References:
- American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts and Figures 2015. Available at http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/content/@research/documents/webcontent/acspc-042151.pdf. Accessed February 27, 2015.
