IDENTIFYING AND FUNCTIONALLY CHARACTERISING RENAL CANCER DRIVER MUTATIONS

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Worldwide kidney cancer causes over 140,000 deaths each year and its incidence of has markedly increased over the past 30 years. Despite advances in the treatment of kidney cancer many patients still have an unfavourable outlook. Cancers are caused by DNA mutations. Identifying these mutations is crucial for understanding what drives kidney cancer and devising new treatments. Studies of kidney cancer have, however, largely focused on mutations that cause changes in the proteins, without considering the remaining 98% of the cell's DNA. Some examples of cancer promoting mutations in this "non-coding DNA" have been identified but there has not been a comprehensive analysis for kidney cancer. To address this deficiency we shall therefor scrutinise the non-coding DNA cataloguing mutations and deciphering their functional consequences. This work should allow patient prognosis to be more accriyately defined and inform new targets for therapy.