Rare kidney tumor provides insights on role of metabolic changes in cancer

Researchers in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Network have made a number of new findings about the biology and development of a rare form of kidney cancer. They found that the disease – chromophobe renal cell carcinoma (ChRCC) – stems in part from alterations in genes in the mitochondria, the cell’s energy supplier. They also discovered that the tumor is characterized by genetic rearrangements near a gene important in DNA repair and in maintaining telomerase, the enzyme which determines a cell’s lifespan. Finally, investigators also found that ChRCC is a distinct disease and shares few genomic characteristics with other kidney cancers. Read more here.