CANCELED! Kidney Cancer Education Meeting - Westchester, NY

CANCELED!

Please note: this meeting has been postponed until Spring 2016. A new date for the meeting will be announced soon. 

Kidney Cancer Education Meeting - Westchester

Tuesday, December 15, 2015 6:30 - 8:00 pm

Guest Speaker: Janice P. Dutcher, M.D.   

Topic: Immunotherapy and the Treatment of Kidney Cancer 

Gilda's Club Westchester

80 Maple Avenue

White Plains, NY 10601

There is no cost to attend, but we ask that you RSVP to 914-644-8844 at least 24 hours in advance.

More about this month's topic:

Renal Cell Cancer has been treated with immunotherapy for more than 20 years, specifically the cytokines, interferon-alpha and interleukin-2.   Cytokines are like hormones that activate immune cells.  We make low levels of these cytokines normally to respond to “invaders” -  such as viruses and bacteria.  We give higher doses of cytokines to active immune cells to fight cancer cells.   Kidney cancer is one of the tumors that the immune cells recognize and fight.   Using cytokines is like “stepping on the gas” for the immune system. 

New immunotherapy currrently in clinical trials are agents called checkpoint pathway inhibitors.   Checkpoints in the immune system control and regulate the immune response -  they serve as a brake once the job is completed and the “invader” is controlled.    These new immunotherapy agents are checkpoint inhibitors -  they essentially “take off the brake” so that the immune response to cancer stays active.   These agents are showing activity for some patients with several different types of cancers, including kidney cancer, melanoma and lung cancer.

We will discuss the new immunotherapies and how they will fit into the overall management and treatment of kidney cancer and for whom they seem to be appropriate.