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Nephrology Section

Farhad R. Danesh, M.D.

Professor and Section Chief

The Nephrology section specializes in disorders and diseases of the kidneys in cancer patients. Our mission is to provide the highest level of patient care, expand the frontiers of basic and clinical investigation in nephrology, and support state-of-the-art training and education in nephrology. Our full-time faculty members are dedicated to clinical practice, research and teaching.

A message from the section chief

Welcome to the Nephrology section at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Kidney complications, because of cancer or its treatment, are becoming increasingly more prevalent in our population. Treatments for these onco-nephrology conditions are changing rapidly, and exciting new advances in basic and clinical research offer a promise of even more effective therapies to come.

As a research-intensive section in the Internal Medicine division, our faculty, fellows and staff provide state-of-the-art clinical care for patients with kidney diseases and generate new knowledge with the ultimate goal of improving our understanding and treatment of these diseases. The research is fostered by several NIH-funded grants. We also teach onco-nephrology to medical students, residents and fellows, while training the next generation of onco-nephrologists through our outstanding onco-nephrology fellowship program.

I encourage you to explore our website to learn more about us.

Farhad R. Danesh, M.D.
Professor and Section Chief

Section News

Nephrology Controversies and Case Disscusions "Bayou City Bean Club"

The Bayou City Bean Club is a collaboration between MD Anderson; Baylor College of Medicine; McGovern Medical School, Houston; and Houston Methodist Hosptial. This is a CME-sponsored education series designed to contribute to the education of professionals in the Texas Medical Center on special topics impacting Nephrology. It meets the 3rd Friday of every month from 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM (in person or via Zoom). Please contact Savannah Kaspar, Sr. Administrative Assistant, at SCKaspar@mdanderson.org for information on how to participate.

Next event

Friday, June 16, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Kevin W. Finkel, MD, FACP, FASN, FCCM
Title - "Fluid Restriction in the Critically Ill Patient"

Prior Speakers

Ogo Egbuna, MD, MSc, FASN "APOL1-Mediated Kidney Disease (AMKD): A Curious Case of Genetics and Precision Nephrology" 05/19/23

Horacio E. Adrogue, MD, FASN "Amyloidosis and the Kidneys" 04/21/23

Bhamidipati V. Ramana Murthy, M.B.B.S, M.D., D.M "The Challenge of Transplanting Highly Sensitized Paitents" 02/17/23

Sankar Dass Navaneethan, MD, MS, MPH, FASN " Management of diabetes in chrinic kidney disease: Update from 2022 KDIGO Guideline" 01/20/23

Tariq Shafi, MD, MHS "Tired of Debating eGFR? Do your Patients a Favor and Learn to Measure GFR" 12/16/22

Scott C. Howard, MD, MSc "Updates in the management of nephrotoxicity from high-dose methotrexate" 10/14/22

Upcoming Onco-Nephrology Events

The 2023 Onco-Nephrology Symposium is scheduled for October 6-7 at Hotel Zaza in Houston's Museum District, Houston, Texas. We will share the registration information in the coming weeks.

Renal Rounds

The Nephrology section hosts weekly Renal Rounds for faculty and fellows to present on clinical and research topics and activities. Renal Rounds meets every Friday from 12-1p.m. (currently via Zoom). Please contact Savannah Kaspar at SCKaspar@mdanderson.org on how to participate.

1st and 2nd friday of the month : Fellow case presentation
3rd friday of the month: Bayou City Bean Club
Last friday of the month: Biopsy Conference

Awards & Highlights

We are excited that multiple of our abstracts have been accepted for presentation at ASN Kidney Week 2022.

For more details, please navigate to https://www.asn-online.org/education/kidneyweek/archives/

Session Title: 1600 Onconephrology: Abstract - SA-PO125
Date & Time: November 5, 2022 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
"Infliximab for Treatment of Immunie Adveerse Events"
Sesstin Title: 900 Educational Research: Abstract - TH-PPO07
Date & Time: November 3, 2022 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
"Conducting an Ulstrasound guided kidney biopsy workshop in Leon, Nicaragua"
Session Title: 1600 Onconephrology: Abstract - SA-PO113
Date & Time: November 5, 2022 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
"A Pathological Immunological Approach in Evaluating ICI Induced Nephritis"
Session Title: 1600 Onconephrology: Abstract - SA-PO141
Date & Time: November 5, 2022 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
"A Journey from Primary Membranous to Secondary Membranous Nephropathy"
Session Title: 2002 Transplantation: Abstract - SA-PO870
Date & Time: November 5, 2022 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
“BK Nephropathy in Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Patients: An Upcoming Challenge"
Session Title: 1600 Onconephrology: Abstract - FR-PO181
Date& Time: November 4, 2022 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
"The Use Of Rituximab in Treatment of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Induced Glomerulonephritis"
SessionTitle: 1600 Onconephrology: Abstract - SA-PO134
Date & Time: November 5, 2022 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
"Renal pathologies and outcomes post allogeneic stem cell transplantation patients"
Session Title: 1600 Onconephrology: Abstract - FR-PO198
Date & Time: November 4, 2022 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
“Immune checkpoint inhibitor induced multi Organ Sarcoid -Like reactions”
Session Title: 1700 Pathology and Lab Medicine: Abstract - TH-PO559
Date & Time: November 3, 2022 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
"Baseline Characteristics of renal biopsy cohort of patients with CKDu in Nicaragua"
Session Title: 1600 Onconephrology: Abstract - SA_PO126
Date & Time: November 5, 2022 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
"A Case of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Related Osmotic Tubular Injury"
Session Title: Impact of MicroRNAs and Circular RNAs on the Pathogenesis and Prognosis of Glomerular Disease
Date & Time: November 3, 2022 from 4:30 to 6 p.m.
Lecture: MicroRNAs in Diabetic Nephropathy. Presenter : Dr. Farhad Danesh

Congratulations to Dr. Lin on being awarded the 2021 Best Oral Presentation Award at ASN’s 2021 Early Career Kidney Conference. Dr. Lin presented on "Treatment of PLA2R-Negative Membranous Nephropathy in the Setting of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor and Renal Cell Carcinoma."

Nephrology Section Chief Farhad Danesh, M.D., will serve on the Editorial Board of Journal of Diabetes, the official journal of the American Diabetes Association. His term will run from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2023.

Institution Fall 2021 Distinguished basic science Paper Award.

Li L, Long J, Mise K, Galvan DL, Overbeek PA, Tan L, Kumar SV, Chan WK, Lorenzi PL, Chang BH, Danesh FR. PGC1α is required for the renoprotective effect of lncRNA Tug1 in vivo and links Tug1 with urea cycle metabolites. Cell Rep. 2021 Aug 10;36(6):109510. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109510. PMID: 34380028; PMCID: PMC8369494.

Recent Faculty Publications

1. Singh S, Clemente LC, Parra ER, Tchakarov A,Yang C, Li Y, Long JP, Yee C, Lin JS. Urinary T cells are detected in patients with immune checkpoint inhibitor-associated immune nephritis that are clonotypically identical to kidney T cell infiltrates. Oncoimmunology. 2022 Dec 31;11(1):2124678

2. Chen S, Shey J, Chiaramonte R. Ratio Profile: Physiologic Approach to Estimating Appropriate IV Fluid Rate to Manage Hyponatremia of SIAD. Kidney360. 2022 Jan 1.

3. Kenar D. Jhaveri, Abhijat Kitchlu, and Ala Abudayyeh. Does treating with anti-PD-1 to improve glomeural health come without a cost?/ J Clin Invest. 2022;132(22):e164747. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI164747.

4. Rashidi A, Jhaveri KD, Workeneh BT, Gupta S. The path toward the creation of the American Society of Onco-Nephrology (ASON). Journal of Onco-Nephrology. 2022;6(1-2):3-5.

5. Ratanasrimetha, Praveen, Biruh T. Workeneh, and Harish Seethapathy. "Sodium and Potassium Dysregulation in the Patient With Cancer." Advances in Chronic Kidney Disease 29.2 (2022): 171-179.

6. Uppal, N. N., Workeneh, B. T., Rondon-Berrios, H., & Jhaveri, K. D. (2022). Electrolyte and Acid-Base Disorders Associated with Cancer Immunotherapy. Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, 17(6), 922-933.

7. Abudayyeh, Ala, and Rimda Wanchoo. "Kidney Disease Following Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation." Advances in Chronic Kidney Disease 29.2 (2022): 103-115.

8. Awiwi, Muhammad, Ala Abudayyeh, Noha Abdel-Wahab, Adi Diab, Migena Gjoni, Guofan Xu, Raghu Vikram, and Khaled M. Elsayes. "Radiologic features of immune checkpoint inhibitor-related nephritis with clinical correlation in biopsy-proven cases." (2022): e14585-e14585.

9. Chen, Sheldon, and Robert Chiaramonte. "[Creatinine] can change in an unexpected direction due to the volume change rate that interacts with kinetic GFR: Potentially positive paradox." Physiological Reports 10.3 (2022): e15172.

10. Maulion, Christopher, Sheldon Chen, Veena S. Rao, Juan B. Ivey-Miranda, Zachary L. Cox, Devin Mahoney, Steven G. Coca et al. "Hemoconcentration of creatinine minimally contributes to changes in creatinine during treatment of decompensated heart failure." Kidney360 (2022).

11. Mamlouk, Omar, Marco Bonilla, and Shveta Motwani. “ A Path to Training in Onconephrology”, Kidney News 14, 6 (2022): 28-28

12. Chen S, Shey J, Chiaramonte R. Ratio Profile: Physiologic Approach to Estimating Appropriate Intravenous Fluid Rate to Manage Hyponatremia in the Syndrome of Inappropriate Antidiuresis. Kidney360 https://kidney360.asnjournals.org/content/early/2022/10/16/KID.0004882022