FECRI research team, PhD candidate Dr Revati Sharma, with supervisors Professor George Kannourakis, Dr Prashanth Prithviraj and Professor Nuzhat Ahmed, have published a research paper ‘Precision Medicine: An Optimal Approach to Patient Care in Renal Cell Carcinoma’ in Frontiers in Medicine.
The research found strategies used in precision medical treatment, have application for renal cancer patients. Current therapies used for renal cancer patients are not so effective, as most patients treated with a first and consecutive lines of therapies relapse. The manuscript describes recent strategies used in precision medicine (patient specific treatment) have a potential for renal cancer patients.
Kidneys are essential for filtering the blood, by removing excess water and waste products into urine. In renal cancer, cancer cells initially grow in one or both kidneys and can spread to surrounding tissues, adrenal glands, lymph nodes, liver, spreading to other parts of the body, such as the lungs or bones.
More than 3000 people are diagnosed with renal cancer in Australia each year, making it about 3% of all cancers. It is more common in men than women and is the ninth most diagnosed cancer for Australian men. The risk of this cancer increases in people over 50.
The precision medicine strategies used in the manuscript have a great potential in enhancing the success rate of treating renal cancer patients.
Precision medicine offers more specific and individualised treatments for patients and this work shows the importance of precision medicine in the treatment of Renal Cell Carcinoma patients.
This research was undertaken with support of the John Turner Cancer Research Funds to Fiona Elsey Cancer Research Institute and in collaboration with the Hudson Institute of Medical Research.
