Characterisation of the role & biomarker potential of the novel cell surface protein TTYH2 in renal cell carcinoma

肾细胞癌是最常见的肾癌。三分之一的患者在首次诊断时已经在体内有继发性肿瘤部位，而且对更晚期疾病的新治疗方法使他们很难治愈。目前迫切需要对这种癌症进行早期特异性检测。我们小组发现了一个新的基因，叫做TTYH2，它在肾细胞癌组织样本中高表达，而在正常肾组织中不表达。在这项研究中，我们打算在更多的临床样本中观察TTYH2的表达，以确定TTYH2是否会成为这种癌症的有用生物标志物。我们也正在研究该蛋白在肾细胞癌细胞中的功能，以确定TTYH2在癌症发生和进展中的确切作用。最后，我们将研究肾癌细胞中哪些其他蛋白质与TTYH2相互作用。这些后一项研究将帮助我们更好地了解疾病过程，并可能帮助我们设计新的治疗方法。

Renal cell carcinoma is the most common cancer of the kidney. One-third of patients upon first diagnosis have secondary tumour sites already within their body as well as new treatment approaches for more advanced disease making them very difficult to cure. An early specific test for this cancer is urgently needed. Our group has identified a new gene called TTYH2 which is highly expressed by renal cell carcinoma tissue samples but not in normal kidney tissues. In this study, we intend to look at the expression of TTYH2 in more clinical samples to determine if TTYH2 will be a useful bio-marker for this cancer. We are also studying the function of this protein in renal cell carcinoma cells to identify the exact role that TTYH2 performs in cancer development and progression. Finally we will look at what other proteins are interacting with TTYH2 in kidney cancer cells. These latter studies will help us to understand the disease process better and may help us design new treatment methods.