In August of 2022, Action to Cure Kidney Cancer awarded a $50,000 grant to support the work of the National Cancer Institute’s Urologic Oncology Branch, specifically target toward kidney cancer. In the words of W. Marston Linehan, the Chief of the Branch:
This group is studying the genetic, metabolic, and immunologic aspects of uncommon and rare forms of kidney cancer such as FH-deficient type 2 papillary renal cell carcinoma, medullary renal cell carcinoma, TFE3 renal cell carcinoma and FLCN-deficient renal cell carcinoma in order to provide the foundation for the development of effective forms of therapy for these malignancies.
Above: Jay Bitkower, President, ACKC and Dr. Linehan, NCI
This is the second award that ACKC has granted to NCI, as we feel that it is vital to support research in “uncommon” forms of kidney cancer. It was the Oncology Branch that discovered a gene that causes papillary renal cell carcinoma, which strikes around 10,000 people a year. One of the oncology group’s areas of study is medullary renal cell carcinoma, which accounts for only 1% of all RCCs, but has no viable treatment and for those patients who are metastatic, which most are at time of diagnosis, they have a median survival of only 3-6 months. It mostly affects young African-American men, most of whom have sickle cell trait. Diseases like this are mostly ignored by the pharmaceutical industry as it wouldn’t be profitable to invest research money into a disease, albeit fatal, that comprises so few patients. It is usually left to the Federal government to fund these types of cancer.
Dr. Linehan will oversee the research for the ACKC grant. We would like to thank all of our contributors who made this award possible, including Facebook users who run “birthday fundraisers” designating ACKC as the recipient.
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