Critical Need for Continued Congressional Funding in Kidney Cancer Research

The kidney cancer research community is crying out for continued support from congressional funding to ensure that patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and other disease types receive cutting-edge treatments. Eric Jonasch, MD, emphasizes the importance of extending funding for the benefit of patients with RCC. The Kidney Cancer Research Consortium, a multi-institutional program, aims to facilitate mechanistic and scientifically driven clinical trials assessing novel therapeutic strategies across RCC subtypes. Current initiatives within the consortium include combining standard immunotherapies with novel modalities to potentially improve treatment options for patients with RCC.

Key Takeaways:

The Kidney Cancer Research Consortium is a 7-institution consortium funded by the Department of Defense Kidney Cancer Research Program, aiming to run tissue-rich, data-rich, hypothesis-testing clinical trials with novel agents.
The consortium has a portfolio of 10 clinical trials that have either been completed, are in progress, or are about to open, with results showing promise.
The clinical trials conducted as part of the consortium appear most promising in improving outcomes among patients, particularly those focusing on immune-modulating agents.
Next steps for expanding the role of the consortium include improving data collection methods, developing novel biomarkers, and partnering with industry to develop early development assets.
The presentation highlighted the importance of securing federal funding to aid research efforts and consequently affect patient outcomes.
Jonasch emphasized that the momentum gained from this work should continue and that the distance between spending money on research and then getting benefit for patients with cancer is getting shorter and shorter.

Statistics:

7 institutions are part of the Kidney Cancer Research Consortium.
10 clinical trials are part of the consortium's portfolio, with 4 years of experience in running tissue-rich, data-rich, hypothesis-testing clinical trials with novel agents.
Over 100 patients have participated in clinical trials conducted as part of this consortium.

Sources:

Jonasch, E. Building the infrastructure for discovery: a clinical trial consortium to accelerate kidney cancer research. Presented at: 2025 Kidney Cancer Research Summit; July 17-18, 2025; Boston, MA.