Fall 2010 - Eastern Virginia Medical School

newsCancer centers team up to targetkidney cancerGraduate student Tiffany Benzine examinesa sample of kidney tissue. The top half ofthe sample is normal while the bottom halfis cancerous.Two talented biomedical research teamswith extensive experience in studyingcancer are combining their expertiseto focus on kidney cancer, one of the 10 mostcommon forms of the disease.Physicians and scientists at Eastern VirginiaMedical School and the Mayo Clinic are jointlyconducting a three-year study of kidney cancerthat is supported by a $1 million grant from theU.S. Department of Defense.The purpose of the research is to develop moreaccurate ways to determine which forms of kidneycancer are likely to be aggressive — and lethal.EVMS is among the world’s leaders in studyingproteins — the chemical messengers in cells —for clues to the presence of disease. Our researchin the field known as proteomics has turned upunique chemical fingerprints — called protein“biomarkers” — that can signal disease and,increasingly, measure a tumor’s potential to doharm. EVMS brings this expertise to bear on itslatest target.“We want to understand the underlyingmechanisms of aggressiveness for the most commonform of kidney cancer: clear cell renal cancer,” saysRichard Drake, PhD, professor of microbiologyand molecular cell biology at EVMS and a partof the newly created Leroy T. Canoles Jr. CancerResearch Center.The purpose of the research isto develop more accurate waysto determine which forms ofkidney cancer are likely to beaggressive — and lethal.“Our part of the project is to conduct a newtissue-imaging approach to find protein biomarkersfor kidney-cancer aggressiveness,” says Dr. Drake,who is co-principal investigator on the study withAlexander S. Parker, PhD, assistant professorof epidemiology at the Mayo Clinic College ofMedicine in Jacksonville, Fla.The Mayo Clinic has one of the world’s mostextensive collections of cancerous kidney tissue. TheResearchers are studying tiny slivers of cancerous kidneytissue to learn how to battle the disease.teams will draw on these samples as part of theirresearch.Metabolon, a company based in North Carolinathat is also part of the research project, is analyzingchanges in the cellular metabolites using those samefrozen samples of cancerous kidney tissue.The researchers hope these two types ofbiomarkers, combined with other details — suchas a pathologist’s report — will provide a bettermeasure of a cancer’s aggressiveness and help guidetreatment decisions.“Our goal is to develop a biomarker-basedprediction model that will help clinicians moreaccurately predict which kidney-cancer patients areat greatest risk for the return of the cancer after theinitial surgery,” Dr. Drake says.Continued on page 174 FALL 2010 www.evms.edunews