The Cancer Letter highlights UC kidney cancer research

The Cancer Letter highlighted the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center’s Maria Czyzyk-Krzeska's new NIH-funded research that will investigate how copper contributes to the advancement and recurrence of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC).

Research has found that increased accumulation of copper is associated with worse outcomes for patients with ccRCC, the most common type of kidney cancer.

“That indicated to us that copper has a potential driving effect in tumor progression of clear cell renal cell carcinoma,” said Czyzyk-Krzeska, a University of Cincinnati Cancer Center researcher and professor in the Department of Cancer Biology in UC’s College of Medicine.

The study will seek to identify the mechanisms that allow ccRCC cells to take up more copper, copper’s metabolic effects on the tumor cells and whether any of the copper-specific features of the tumor cells have vulnerabilities that can open up new treatments for ccRCC. 

“There are essentially two or three major lines of treatment for kidney cancer, but ultimately there’s always a group of tumors that are not responsive or recur” said Czyzyk-Krzeska. “We hope what we find is going to provide opportunities for new treatments.”

Read The Cancer Letter article.

Read more about the research.

Featured photo at top of periodic table highlighting copper. Photo/HT Ganzo/iStock.