Kidney cancer accounts for 4% of all cases and is currently the sixth most common cancer diagnosed in the UK.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and OncoHost are collaborating to research and identify biomarkers for renal cell carcinoma (RCC), a type of kidney cancer.
The collaboration aims to use Dana-Farber’s repository of patient plasma samples and clinical data to provide material to OncoHost to generate proteomic plasma profiles.
According to Cancer Research UK, kidney cancer is the sixth most common cancer in the UK, accounting for 4% of all new cancer cases.
RCC develops when malignant cells are found in the lining of the kidney’s tubules, but currently there is no blood test that can help make individualized treatment recommendations for these patients, explained Wenxin Xu, M.D., a Dana-Farber physician and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Most patients with RCC are treated with immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy (ICI), however, ICIs are not effective in all patients and may cause immune-related adverse events (irAEs).
The PROPHETIC study will develop novel proteomic plasma profiling technologies in pre-treatment metastatic RCC patients to correlate changes in protein expression with treatment response indicators, including best response, overall survival and progression-free survival, and evaluate different response predictions to specific treatment combinations.
Furthermore, this study will explore proteomic pathways associated with treatment response and irAEs, potentially providing insight into treatment options and biological patterns of resistance.
Furthermore, this study compares it with other pathways identified in other cancers and furthers our understanding of the unique biomolecular landscape of RCC.
Xu commented: “In this study, we are exploring whether by measuring the blood levels of thousands of cancer-related proteins we can build personalized, data-driven predictions. If successful, the data we generate could help us learn more about the biology of renal cell carcinoma and how to treat it.”
“We are pleased to collaborate with Dana-Farber on this important research study to improve clinical decision-making in frontline care settings and ultimately improve patient outcomes,” said Ofer Sharon, CEO of OncoHost.
