Objectives

Our aim is to carry out comprehensive detection of DNA markers for conventional (clear cell) renal carcinoma, a significant public health issue within Europe and an important tumour type for inclusion in the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC).

We will undertake complete analysis of somatic and constitutional DNA variation, methylation patterns and expression in at least 100 constitutional/tumour pairs (as a first stage towards full analysis of 500 pairs). We will mobilise existing clinical and epidemiological networks to obtain a minimum of 2250 additional incident kidney cancer sample pairs for follow-up of potential disease markers. The samples will be extensively annotated with clinical and epidemiological data so that these variables can be analysed conjointly with the genomic data. The CAGEKID data will open to the scientific community and maintained in archives at the European Bioinformatics Institute (Partner 5). The data will also be contributed to the ICGC following the guidelines that will be adopted by the international consortium.

The CAGEKID partners will obtain antibodies where possible to genomic targets identified within the framework of the program, adding an important additional resource component to the application. Although we will focus initially on clear cell carcinoma, we will evaluate the capacity of the consortium to obtain samples for other forms of renal cancer.

We expect significant advances in sequencing technology during the course of the programme that may allow us to increase the number of fully characterised samples pairs. Standardised collection and sample preparation protocols will be implemented for patient recruitment and sample selection. Training in methodology used in CAGEKID and information on the results will be of interest to a wide scientific and medical public. We will assure diffusion of the methods and results in a series of training workshops organised and led by the consortium partners.