My husband (and stage IV kidney cancer warrior) Gary saw Dr. Charles Drake during his last visit to Johns Hopkins. I told Dr. Drake about KCCure and asked him what he thought about the need for more funding for kidney cancer research. Below are his thoughts on why research funding is so critical.
Thank you, Dr. Drake, for supporting your patients in so many ways!
“This is the time to up the ante and invest robustly in kidney cancer research. Immunotherapy with PD-1 blocking agents is our foot in the door, proving that a reasonable proportion of patients can enjoy long-term remissions with a well-tolerated treatment approach. Some of the responses to immunotherapy have even been complete responses (i.e., there is no measurable tumor left). So it’s now that we need to expand the resources available for both basic and clinical science – working toward a day when it’s not just a handful of patients with a complete response; instead, we’d like to see that happen for ALL patients.” — Dr. Charles Drake
