Supported Research

Lay Abstract

Kidney cancer is among the topmost common 10 cancers worldwide. Approximately 85,000 people would be diagnosed with kidney cancer in North America in a year, and 1 of 4 of these would die of the cancer. Patients with kidney disease are more 5-15 times more prone to get kidney cancer. However, the types of kidney cancer that are common in these kidney disease patients do not have any effective cancer drugs available. The treatments currently used to treat these cancers were not specifically designed to target their biology, but rather designed initially and used on other cancer subtypes. We did initial work that studied these kidney cancers common in kidney disease patients and found molecules that distinguish these cancers. Additionally, these molecules play a role in cancer growth and certain drugs can be designed to block their effect and hence be used to treat these cancers. We will study these kidney cancer types on a more extensive genetic level to confirm the best drugs that can be used to kill these cancer cells. We will also grow cancer cells in test tubes and mice, and then treat these cancer cells with different drugs that specifically block the molecules we found. We are expecting that our tested drugs would kill cancer cells, based on our previous experiments. Our work should generate enough evidence to allow patients to start getting these drugs in clinical trials. Our work could lead to potentially better results and quality of life for kidney cancer patients.