Carbone Cancer Center Expert Shares Biggest Updates in Kidney Cancer Treatment

For this episode of “The Vitals,” Oncology Nursing News® spoke with Hamid Emamekhoo, MD, an assistant professor of the Division of Hematology, Medical Oncology and Palliative Care with the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center. Emamekhoo offers a snapshot of recent advances in kidney cancer treatments, an overview of caring for patients receiving immunotherapy and TKI combinations, and where future advances for kidney cancer research are headed.

“We have used high dose interleukin-2 for the treatment of kidney cancer since 1992—we have been doing immunotherapy for kidney cancer before immunotherapy was cool. But it was not the best treatment modality because it is a little hard to tolerate. It causes a lot of side effects because it mimics a severe sepsis and riles up the immune system,” explains Emamekhoo. “Of course, with the advancements in immunotherapy [and with] the approvals of [various] immune checkpoint inhibitors, that has changed significantly.”

References

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