Action to Cure Kidney Cancer (ACKC)
ACKC is the only major kidney cancer grassroots advocacy organization raising funds
that go predominantly to support kidney cancer research.
We don’t accept money from Big Pharma or any other treatment stakeholders.
Advance
RESEARCH FUNDING
Advocate for federal funding of kidney cancer research including DoD’s KCRP and NCI’s SPORE; grant awards to institutions, scientists, and projects
Inform
CANCER COMMUNITY
Share news and knowledge about kidney cancer causes, stages, treatment, prevention; educate policymakers, empower patients and caregivers
Promote
CANCER AWARENESS
Understand causes, expose inequities (racial, ethnic, gender, geographic) and obstacles (uninsured, drug costs); identify stakeholder roles and agendas
Support
ACKC MISSION
Help achieve our purpose; donate; join us to fundraise, lobby elected officials, comment on news and point-of-view posts, engage on social media
Fuel Our Fight
Every 6 minutes someone is diagnosed with kidney cancer, and nearly 14,000 will die this year.* Yet funding for research lags behind other cancers. Learn more →
*In the US • Source: American Cancer Society
Campaigns for Federal Research Funding
ACKC’s Capitol Hill advocacy has generated $198 million in Congressional appropriations for kidney cancer research through FY 2022.
Direct Funding to Kidney Cancer Researchers
Since 2006, ACKC has granted more than $465,000 to promising scientists and their institutions.
Independent Research and Analysis
“ACKC Investigates” takes an in-depth look at causes of kidney cancer, exposes inequities and obstacles to care, and delves into stakeholder roles and agendas.
News Highlights
Headline snippets, curated by ACKC, that may be of interest — directly or tangentially — to our kidney cancer community.
Link below for more articles, detailed summaries, and original sources.
President signs omnibus bill including $50M for kidney cancer research…Standard fetus DNA test can diagnose maternal cancer…Cause of death in CT prisons…Tumors eventually develop resistance to immunotherapies by one tumor cell hiding inside another tumor cell…Walking is fine, but “brisk” walking is finer in the search for longevity…5-org meetup about healthcare disparities…
ACKC Blog
Information related to treatment therapies, prevention of disease, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and overcoming obstacles to effective care, including original research and our own independent analysis.
President Signs Bill with $50M for Kidney Cancer Research
On December 30, President Biden signed the FY2023 Omnibus Bill, which includes $50 million for the Kidney Cancer Research Program for this fiscal year ending on September 30, 2023. That brings the total funding for kidney cancer research, since 2006 when ACKC...
Triplet Therapy for Kidney Cancer
Dr. Toni Choueiri, the principal investigator, from Dana Farber Institute, presented the results of the much-anticipated Phase III trial, COSMIC-313, at the 2022 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Conference in Paris. COSMIC-313 is the first triplet drug...
Therapies to Treat Metastatic RCC in Clear Cell Patients
The following is a summary extracted from a set of guidelines issued during 2022 by the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) on how to medically treat metastatic kidney cancer for patients who have clear cell carcinoma (ccRCC). The guidelines were...
ACKC Awards $50,000 Research Grant
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:...
Cigarette Smoking Leads to 2 Million Person-Years of Lost Life
A study done by researchers working for the American Cancer Society (ACS), found that 30% of the cancer deaths in the U.S., or over 122,000 smokers in 2019, were caused by cigarette smoking. Further, smoking led to over two million total person-years of lost life...
High Cost of Cancer Drugs
In 2006, Mike from Pennsylvania was diagnosed with advanced kidney cancer that had spread to his ribs. His doctor prescribed Sutent (sunitinib), at the time, a newly approved Pfizer drug, which cost $179 for a 50 mg pill. The dosage for Sutent is one pill daily...
Patient Survival and COVID-19 Vaccines
A group of researchers and doctors belonging to the OnCovid Study Group published a retrospective study of survival rate and other factors, in Europe, of vaccinated versus unvaccinated cancer patients. The article was published in the June 2, 2022 issue of Lancet...
Funding Kidney Cancer Research: A Story of Persistence and Luck
It is said that in order to succeed one must be persistent and be prepared to take advantage of opportunities when they arise. ACKC’s decades-long effort to obtain Federal funding for kidney cancer research confirms the wisdom of that approach. Here’s the story. In...
Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) as an Adjutant Therapy for RCC
Oncologists generally prescribe adjuvant therapy to patients who not only have been diagnosed and treated for their disease but, also have a high probability that the disease will return. For example, in women with hormone-receptor-positive (HR+), the most common...
Water Contamination in Parkersburg, WV
This story begins in October 1996 on Wilbur Earl Tennant’s farm outside of Parkersburg, WV, a town of 30,000 people located across the Ohio River from Ohio. For decades, Earl raised beef cattle on his 300-acre spread. For the last two years, he noticed with alarm...
Resources Empower Patients and Caregivers
News About Kidney Cancer Therapies
Keep current with best practices regarding kidney cancer care, findings from studies and trials, and recent FDA approvals.
