Elizabeth Petri Henske, MD, director of the Center for LAM Research and Clinical Care, co-director of the Pulmonary Genetics Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and professor at Harvard Medical School, discusses the potential role of glutathione in chromophobe renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Glutathione is an antioxidant that is produced in cells, says Henske. In the rare chromophobe subtype of RCC, Henske and fellow researchers hypothesize that glutathione could provide a tool for therapeutic targeting. 

Additionally, glutathione may provide insight into tumor growth and explain why patients with chromophobe RCC accumulate abnormal mitochondria, Henske explains. 

Chromophobe RCC represents approximately 5% of all RCC. Currently, the lack of tissue specimens, cell lines, and animal models makes chromophobe a challenging subtype to study, concludes Henske.

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Elizabeth Petri Henske, MD, discusses the potential role of glutathione in chromophobe renal cell carcinoma.  



Dr. Henske on the Potential Role of Glutathione in Chromophobe RCC 

Elizabeth Petri Henske, MD, director of the Center for LAM Research and Clinical Care, co-director of the Pulmonary Genetics Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and professor at Harvard Medical School, discusses a newly discovered pathway in chromophobe renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Chromophobe RCC is a rare subtype of kidney cancer that affects about 5% of all patients with RCC. Much less is known about chromophobe histology than some of the more common histologies, says Henske.

Through metabolomic profiling, Henske discovered a defect in the glutathione salvage pathway. This pathway defect, which could cause mitochondrial damage, may hold the key to specialized chromophobe treatment as it is absent in the more common subtypes of RCC, explains Henske. There are many types of kidney cancer, and not each type can be studied or treated the same way, Henske concludes.

Elizabeth Petri Henske, MD, director of the Center for LAM Research and Clinical Care, co-director of the Pulmonary Genetics Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and professor at Harvard Medical School, discusses a newly discovered pathway in chromophobe renal cell carcinoma.

Elizabeth Petri Henske, MD

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