Tumor Genetic Signatures May Help Explain Global Kidney Cancer Rates: Cancer Currents
, by Elise Tookmanian, Ph.D.
Researchers are using genomic approaches to investigate the possible causes of kidney cancer in different parts of the world.
Kidney cancer rates vary around the globe, but known risk factors for the disease, such as tobacco smoking, high blood pressure, and obesity, cannot fully explain this variation. The latest Cancer Currents: An NCI Cancer Research Blog post covers the latest study on the potential genetic underpinnings of this variation. The researchers sequenced tumor and normal tissue DNA from almost 1,000 people with kidney cancer in 11 countries in order to identify mutational signatures, which can be used to help determine potential causes of cancer.
Stephen J. Chanock, M.D., DCEG director and a co-author on the study, said, "This work is like finding needles in haystacks." However, when the mutational signatures are identified and separated from non-drivers of disease, "Scientists can use mutational signatures in much the same way as detectives use fingerprints collected at a crime scene...[W]e can work backwards and understand events that happened in the past."
Mark Purdue, Ph.D., and Nathaniel Rothman, M.D., M.P.H., M.H.S., both senior investigators in the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch, were also co-authors on this collaborative work.
Reference
Senkin S et al. Geographic variation of mutagenic exposures in kidney cancer genomes. Nature. 2024.