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。第一次诊断时，三分之一的患者体内已经有继发性肿瘤部位，以及针对更严重疾病的新治疗方法，这使得他们很难治愈。迫切需要对这种癌症进行早期特异性检测。我们的团队已经发现了一种名为TTYH2的新基因，该基因在肾癌组织样本中高表达，但在正常肾组织中不表达。在这项研究中，我们打算观察TTYH2在更多的临床样本中的表达，以确定TTYH2是否将成为一种有用的癌症生物标记物。我们还在研究这种蛋白在肾癌细胞中的功能，以确定TTYH2在癌症发生和发展中发挥的确切作用。最后，我们将看看在肾癌细胞中还有哪些其他蛋白质与TTYH2相互作用。后面的这些研究将帮助我们更好地了解疾病的过程，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.