Translocation renal cell carcinoma (tRCC) is rare – making up less than 5 percent of all cases of kidney cancer – and is more common in children than in adults. In children, it usually grows slowly, but in adults, this cancer can be aggressive.

Promising news: Johns Hopkins pathologist Kaushal Asrani, Ph.D., has identified potential new targets for treating tRCC: two receptors that sit on the surface of these cancer cells. The receptors, EGFR and HER2, are “commonly overexpressed and successfully targeted in numerous cancers,” says Asrani, “including breast cancer.”

In mouse models of tRCC, Asrani found EGFR and HER2 in abundance – promising findings that earned him the Kidney Cancer Association’s Translocation RCC Focus Award to investigate the therapeutic potential of targeting EGFR/HER2 in tRCC.

In new research, along with Hopkins scientist Ravi Anchoori, Ph.D., and the biotech firm Anchoori founded (Up Therapeutics LLC), Asrani will explore the feasibility of targeting EGFR/HER2. They will use a combination of agents that are already FDA-approved and available – kinase inhibitors and antibody-drug conjugates – as well as some novel agents called lysosome-targeting chimeras (LYTACs), which disrupt the cancer cells’ ability to get rid of waste products. These agents have shown success in blocking other cancers, but have not been tested in preclinical models of tRCC.