Molecular Determinants for Therapy Response on Renal Cell Carcinoma

Overview

Aim of the scientific analysis is to find biological factors (biomarkers) allowing a prediction of disease progression and a better choice of therapy. After diagnosis the kidney and the tumor will be removed by standard surgery followed by drug therapy. Within surgery remaining tumor tissue will be used for the scientific analysis. In case of disease progression during the drug treatment the drug therapy will be changed. Before therapy change a small tissue sample will be collected for molecular diagnostics. This will be done by puncture through the skin under local anesthesia. Blood samples taken before surgery and at the time of first and second disease progression will also be used for molecular-biological analysis. As there is no clear recommendation for drug therapy after disease progression this study should serve to determine an individual therapy on the basis of the molecular profile and the molecular changes. As the tumor disease changes and developes resistance to drugs, analysis at the time of disease progression shall identify biological factors which will predict a likelihood response to a specific drugs. This shall allow to give the patient an individual therapy.

Aim of this study is to perform a profound molecular analysis of the tumor before beginning therapy and after failure of the approved targeted first-and second line therapy (standard therapy). The tumor sample will be analyzed by using profound molecular analysis to identify target structures which will predict the efficacy of a specific therapy (substance group)and therefore have a predictive value. The analysis of molecular biomarkers include the genomic sequencing of targeted areas or of the entire DNA of the tumor tissue comparative to the DNA of healthy cells, the measurement of DNA-regulatory elements (methylation, mi-RNA expression, protein expression analytics, functional tumorcell analysis in-vitro, efficacy analysis in cell culture or in animal model) who are supposed to inspect the biological influence of the molecular biomarkers and measurements of free tumor DNA out of the blood. The response to the established standard therapy in the first and second line will be acquired due to all clinical and radiological established standard parameters. The clinical-radiological response will be correlated with the molecular changes and their changes in therapy process to allow predictive prognosis for a further therapy. There is no approved clinical standard for third line therapy. However there are further medications approved without any scientific evidence of their efficacy in this therapy situation (third line treatment after failure of first and second line treatment) and for which a response of under 6 weeks is expected. For these patients the third line therapy will be adjusted to the molecular profiles of the previous therapies. Therefore the oncological history of the noticed marker profiles and the presence of target structures (from whom it is known that they are influenced by certain substances) will be considered. The therapy will use substances which are approved in general for the treatment of metastatic renal cell cancer.