Editorial: Women in onconephrology: 2022

Abstract

With the advancement in cancer therapy, there has been a dramatic improvement in the survival of cancer patients with nonetheless increased complexity regarding their care. Cancer therapeutics continue to be innovative by evolving from the use of traditional chemotherapies to that of targeted therapies based on gene mutations in the tumor and immunotherapies where we harness the immune system against tumors; all of which are associated with potentially significant renal toxicities. In addition, with the high dependence on adequate kidney function to be eligible for newer available therapies and clinical trials, it has been realized that many aspects of nephrology, including electrolytes abnormalities, acute kidney injury (AKI), and chronic kidney disease (CKD) among others, occurring in an oncology patient represent important aspects of a cancer patient's care. With the appreciation of the intersecting paths of both cancer medicine and nephrology, the term "onconephrology" was coined. Several initiatives followed the birth of this specialized term such as an American Society of Nephrology (ASN) forum in 2011 under the leadership of Dr. Abdulla Salahudeen (1, 2), dedicated journal issues, onconephrology symposiums locally and internationally, an ASN onconephrology precourse as part of Kidney Week and numerous onconephrology curriculums. Today, a dedicated fellowship with at least four programs in the United States and one program in Canada offers the opportunity to train in the field. Moreover, there is a journal solely dedicated to the specialty, and a Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) Controversies Conference on onconephrology recently occurred (3). Furthermore, with this immense recognition of onconephrology as a specialty and rising numbers of onconephrologists, the American Society of Onconephrology was formed in 2021 under the leadership of Drs. Shruti Gupta and Kenar Jhaveri. It is nonetheless worth mentioning that long before this formal recognition, kidney complications within and from cancer were already a matter of great concern among the scientific community, with concerning reports published since the 1950s as the first case of contrast-associated AKI in a patient with myelomatosis was reported in 1954 (4) and the recognition of the associated nephrotoxicity of cisplatin (5). This Research Topic of "Women in Onconephrology" aims to highlight the great contributions that prominent female nephrologists have made to the specialty nationally and internationally, pushing the field further and branching new interests such as transplant onconephrology (6-16), with the first example being Thelma B. Dunn, Frontiers in Nephrology frontiersin.org 01