At the end of the year, the Donaustadt Clinic will start a large-scale clinical study with a vaccination against kidney cancer. The research team is testing immunotherapy made from the body’s own tumor material on around 400 patients. “It has already been shown that this approach works in principle,” explains Martin Marszalek, head of the Department of Urology and Andrology at the Donaustadt Clinic.
After kidney tumor surgery, many patients remain at risk of a relapse. However, current standard therapy is often a burden: the medications used often lead to serious side effects such as hypothyroidism, which requires lifelong treatment.
The new vaccination therapy at the Donaustadt Clinic is intended to minimize the risk of relapse without massively reducing the quality of life. The vaccine is highly personalized: tumor tissue is removed from each affected person after the operation in order to analyze the genetic information of the cancer. The vaccine is then tailor-made so that the immune system specifically recognizes remaining cancer cells. Instead of lifelong medication, only classic vaccination reactions such as local swelling could occur in the future.
Around 1,300 new cases in Austria every year
According to the current Austrian cancer report, around 1,300 people develop kidney cancer every year. Renal cell carcinoma accounts for around 3 percent of all new cancer cases. The gender distribution is particularly striking: with around 900 cases, men are affected almost twice as often as women.
Since early detection is increasing, the chances of recovery if diagnosed in a timely manner are now almost 80 percent. As the experts at the Donaustadt Clinic emphasized to the Kurier, this marks a historical turning point: around 30 years ago, mortality from advanced kidney cancer was around 80 percent within a year.
Phase-III-Studie
Instead of time-consuming infusions, a few injections are sufficient with the new therapeutic approach. However, due to the individual adaptation and the high production costs, once approved, use is primarily intended for high-risk patients.
The Donaustadt Clinic acts as one of the world’s leading centers for this phase III study, in which a total of around 400 people at home and abroad are taking part. Marszalek expects the first interim results after around a year.
Most of those affected are cured after surgical tumor removal. The Donaustadt Clinic has specialized in procedures using the da Vinci surgical robot. “Every year we carry out around 120 procedures for kidney tumors using robot-assisted surgery, which enables us to operate on even very complex kidney tumors while preserving the organs,” explains Marszalek.
date: 2026-02-09 10:03:00