The Keystone Program in Personalized Kidney Cancer Therapy

The Opportunity

“We envision an ongoing cycle of clinical and scientific advances — a translational research effort built upon years of expertise in patient care and laboratory practice.” – Robert Uzzo, M.D.

Kidney cancer therapy is evolving rapidly. Currently, there are three targeted drugs approved for the treatment of metastatic kidney cancer. However, while these agents prolong survival and represent enormous clinical progress, the vast majority of patients with metastatic kidney cancer still succumb to the disease. Each year, there are over 50,000 new cases of kidney cancer — and over 13,000 deaths.

The Keystone Program in Personalized Kidney Cancer Therapy investigates the biological mechanisms that lead to kidney cancer metastasis and aims to uncover the molecular signals that predict how an individual patient’s kidney tumor will respond to therapies. Ultimately, the research supported by this Keystone Program will allow clinicians to optimize therapies for a given patient based on the unique molecular characteristics of that his or her tumor.