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In a study published in the journal Science, researchers led by UNC Lineberger’s Qing Zhang, Assistant Professor in the departments of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine and Pharmacology, suggest that ZHX2 is a potential new therapeutic target for clear cell renal cell carcinoma, which is the most common type of kidney cancer.

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Qing Zhang, PhD
University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center scientists have uncovered a potential therapeutic target for kidney cancers that have a common genetic change. Scientists have known this genetic change can lead to an overabundance of blood vessels, which help feed nutrients to the tumors. Their latest finding shows a potential new cancer-driving pathway.More than 90 percent of the most common type of kidney cancer have a genetic change that leads to the loss of an important tumor suppressor gene called VHL. In a study published in the journal Science, researchers identified a new downstream effect of this genetic change that is helping to drive kidney cancer: They found that a protein called ZHX2 over-accumulates in these cells and helps to turn on other signals involved in cancerous growth. Their findings suggest that ZHX2 is a potential new therapeutic target for clear cell renal cell carcinoma, which is the most common type of kidney cancer.

read the full article by Laura Oleniacz on SOM Newsroom…