Welcome to our second Q & A session with Dr. Yu! You’ll notice that we’ve added a cool new glossary feature to this blog. Mouse over any underlined medical term here (and throughout the website) and you’ll see a pop-up with the definition.
By the way, this thought-provoking question comes to us from one of our Facebook followers. Many thanks to him for suggesting it!
Q: Why isn’t there a permanent cure for Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), since it is on a par with cancer and is very costly to treat. What are the main obstacles to a cure?
A: What a great question!
There are both scientific and socioeconomic obstacles:
CKD is not a single disease, but a common disease process caused by many different underlying diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, glomerulonephritis, etc. By the time CKD ensues, the damage to the kidney is already done, and is very difficult to reverse. The best that can be expected at that point is to slow down further deterioration of the kidney, for which there are, in fact, some quite effective treatments.
There is active research going on to find a cure for some of the underlying diseases, with some minor successes. For example, some patients with Type I diabetes have received pancreatic cell transplants that allow the pancreas to function normally, effectively “curing” their diabetes. Some types of hypertension are curable and some types of glomerulonephritis can be cured with steroids and other immunosuppressant drugs. Obviously though, there is a very long way to go!
CKD is extremely common (more than 10% of the adult population suffers from it), but it does not have the visibility of cancer. This is because few patients with CKD actually die from it. In fact, it is estimated that less than 10% ever reach end-stage kidney disease and need dialysis or a transplant. The remaining 90+% die of cardiovascular diseases (heart attacks, heart failure, strokes). CKD is the major risk factor in these deaths, but most people do not know to attribute them to kidney disease. Thus, the general public is not fully aware of how common or how serious CKD is, and consequently, the amount of money available for kidney disease research is tiny compared to that devoted to cancer research. Conclusion: we need to get the word out!
Michelle, is there any way to research how much money goes to cancer research vs kidney research in this country? I predict that the disparity will be shockingly large.
A quick search on the web turned up many articles with conflicting numbers for dollars spent on cancer research – estimates of $10 to 12 million yearly for the American Cancer Society and $5 to 6 million for the National Cancer Institute. (This doesn’t even account for all the dollars raised by organizations devoted to specific types of cancer.) Yet, I found it very difficult to find any information on how much money is spent on kidney research. This could have had something to do with the search terms I was using (I’ll be sure to refine them and try another web search soon), but it’s more likely evidence that Dr. Yu is right. We really must get the word out about CKD and the need for more research!