“Standard analysis of mutations may not have detected the effects of tobacco smoking in kidney cancer, so these results and this study provides important steps toward new and better therapeutic strategies for kidney cancers in both smoking and nonsmoking populations,” says Maria Czyzyk-Krzeska, MD, PhD, professor in the UC Department of Cancer Biology.
The disease studied, called “clear cell renal cell carcinoma,” is the most common type of kidney cancer, but there are few chemotherapy options for advanced cancers, she says.
A multidisciplinary team of UC researchers led by Czyzyk-Krzeska in Cancer Biology, Jarek Meller, PhD, in Environmental and Public Health Sciences, and Julio Landero Figueroa, PhD, in Chemistry, analyzed tissues of patients who were tobacco users as well as those who were not, uncovering the widespread effects of smoking in this form of kidney cancer.
“Importantly, this integrated approach was key to identifying the major metabolic reprogramming in energy and biosynthesis, associated with the presence of cadmium and inorganic arsenic found in cigarettes, together with a distinct signature of copper in tumors from tobacco smokers,” says Maria Czyzyk-Krzeska.