Non-clear cell renal cell carcinoma (nccRCC) has recently been found to have a very strong connection with various subtypes of proliferative disease. Further, this condition was found to have a weak connection with the angiogenic subtypes vs ccRCC.
These findings were found by analyzing real patient samples.
Researchers are hopeful that these results will lead to more personalized medicine for patients based on their subtype of disease and their specific needs. Of course, additional clinical trials are necessary, but this study was the first step in providing important insights.
The Study
A total of 657 samples were studied from patients with a median age of 62 years. Patients ranged from 14 years old to 90 years old and the vast majority (70.6%) were men. Patients had a wide array of disease subtypes. These included papillary, chromophore, medullary, collecting duct, as well as mixed nccRCC.
Most biopsies were taken from the kidneys, but there were also biopsies taken from the lungs, bone, lymph nodes, liver, and other sites.
Additionally, most of the samples were angio/stromal or angiogenic. The team found that there were greater PD-L1 positivity rates in the nccRCC samples than the ccRCC samples. The highest positivity rates were in the medullary samples.
Ultimately, the researchers uncovered that sarcomatoid/rhabdoid features are associated with both T-effector/proliferative subtypes as well as stromal/proliferative subtypes. Further, they found that the T-effector/proliferative subtypes were more likely to be associated with a higher immune cell infiltration. This increase in immune cells is also associated with a greater expression of immune checkpoint genes in this subtype.
Also uncovered was the fact that endothelial cells are more common in the angio/stromal and angiogenic subtypes whereas immunosuppressive cells were more common in the stromal/proliferative subtypes.
You can read more about these new findings here.