Dr. Henske Discusses a Pathway Deficiency 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.