Fund research on translocation renal cell carcinoma

We’re proud of our work! Joey’s Wings funded research at UT Southwestern Medical Center Kidney Cancer Program is moving forward! The team generated a novel GEMM #tRCC mouse model yielding insights into key biological pathways underlying tRCC development and reported comparative genomic studies. This novel mouse model could open the door for effective drug development to treat translocation renal cell carcinoma, an aggressive kidney cancer affecting children and young adults. Joey’s Wings has funded this project since 2017.

The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, unveiling a significant breakthrough in understanding and potentially treating translocation renal cell carcinoma (tRCC), an uncommon yet devastating form of kidney cancer that disproportionately impacts pediatric patients. 

Together with Kidney Cancer Association, Joey’s Wings funded Dr. Prateek Khanna of the Viswanathan Lab at Dana-Farber Cancer Center in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Khanna is working to find treatment target proteins on translocation RCC cells. In this project, we aim to develop a treatment for tRCC directed against a molecular target unique to cell surface of tRCC. This idea is rooted in previous research done by Dr. Srinivas Viswanathan who identified a surface molecule expressed uniquely in tRCC cells. This project aims to develop a therapy that engages patients’ own immune T cells to recognize tRCC cancer cells thereby causing immune mediated cancer cell death. A cell surface-based therapy holds promise since these therapies are based on immune cell biology and have been shown to be beneficial in other cancer types.

So proud of our work with Dr. Lotan and Dr. Argani at Johns Hopkins! Their newly published paper describes a new diagnostic marker for translocation renal cell carcinoma, Joey’s cancer. The mouse models funded by Joey’s Wings are ready for drug testing! Dr. Argani is the person who named this cancer in 2004 and developed FISH, the diagnosis tool. Joey’s Wings Foundation has been funding Dr. Argani’s work since 2015.