In this special episode, Dr. Phil Pierorazio (University of Pennsylvania) invites Dr. Rana McKay (UC San Diego) and Dr. Raquibul Hannan (UT Southwestern) about treatment options for renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patients in preparation for the 2022 International Kidney Cancer Symposium in Austin, Texas.

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SHOW NOTES

First, the doctors discuss their excitement for the 2022 IKCS. They have benefited greatly from participating in collaboration and networking, improving their wellness strategies, learning about new clinical trials, and debating difficult cases at academic conferences like IKCS.

Next, Dr. Pierorazio presents four different difficult RCC classes to the doctors and asks for an outline of their treatment plans. He starts with localized disease and works towards more aggressive and nodally invasive cancer. For each case, Dr. McKay and Dr. Hannan explain recent developments in clinical trial data, side effect considerations, and the importance of assessing patient comorbidities. All three doctors draw conclusions based on their previous patients as well. Additionally, Dr. McKay explains why it is important to understand what the patient understands about their cancer diagnosis before presenting these treatment options to patients. Dr. Pierorazio has learned to ask patients about their greatest cancer-related fear in order to guide his treatment decisions. Dr. Hannan advises doctors to look at the failure rates of clinical trials along with the success rates.

Cases presented:

Localized clear cell RCC patient with 1 kidney

Adjuvant chemotherapy for a post-nephrectomy patient with T3a clear cell RCC

Papillary RCC patient with a 10 cm mass and a 10 cm para aortic lymph node

Chromophobe RCC patient with an 8 cm renal mass and spinal metastasis