Press Release
Monday, June 26, 2023
Sandra Turcotte: Pursuing Novel Treatments for Kidney Cancer
Dr. Sandra Turcotte is on a mission to fight kidney (renal) cancer, a disease that affects 7,500 Canadians each year. While renal cancer may not be as prevalent as some other types of cancers, it is particularly challenging and lethal because there is no effective treatment for advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC), the major subtype of kidney cancer.
“These tumours are asymptomatic and 30% of patients present metastases at diagnosis. In advanced stages, renal tumours are resistant to conventional treatments, and the five-year survival rate rarely exceeds 10%,” explains Dr. Turcotte.
“It’s therefore crucial to develop new approaches to treat this disease, and so our research lab aims to identify novel therapeutic targets to improve treatment options for patients,” says Dr. Turcotte, Associate Professor at Université de Moncton, Researcher in Residence at the Atlantic Cancer Research Institute, and Assistant Scientific Director (New Brunswick) for the Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute.
In her quest for new treatments, Dr. Turcotte has a secret weapon: a small molecule capable of killing kidney cancer cells.
Kidney cancer cells contain a cancer suppressor gene called VHL (von Hippel-Lindau). In about 80% of renal cancers, this gene contains a mutation that inactivates or turns it off, allowing the cancer to advance. Several years ago, Dr. Turcotte’s lab identified a small molecule that specifically targets cancer cells with this VHL mutation.
“Moreover, this small molecule shows very low toxicity for cells with the functional VHL gene, suggesting it could prevent side effects on normal cells,” says Dr. Turcotte. “We are using bioinformatic platforms, kidney cancer cell lines, mice models and patient samples to identify, test and validate the results. Our innovative approach offers great potential for translational studies to improve therapeutic benefit, quality of life and survival of patients living with kidney cancer.”
Dr. Turcotte has always had a deep interest in exploring cancer at the molecular and genetic level – an approach that she believes is key to beating renal cancer in future. Her research has been funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Kidney Foundation of Canada, and the Cancer Research Society, and she currently holds a Canadian Cancer Society Research Chair in New Brunswick.
Dr. Turcotte sees this as an exciting time for kidney cancer research. She cites advances in immunotherapy as significantly improving treatment options for patients. “They are now an integral part of the management of advanced or metastatic kidney cancer and the results show a reduced recurrence rate and a higher percentage of disease-free survival – although more results are necessary to demonstrate their curative potential.”
Dr. Turcotte lauds the discovery of VHL (which was recognized with a Nobel Prize in 2019) as a critical breakthrough in cancer research. Her own research has demonstrated the feasibility of targeting VHL-inactivating tumours through novel cellular therapies, and her lab is currently validating novel therapeutic target in kidney disease. She is also watching with keen interest the results of other novel inhibitors such as HIF-2a (Belzutifan) which has been approved to treat kidney cancer linked with VHL disease.
The innovative approach that Dr. Turcotte and her lab are pursuing shows tremendous promise for novel drug development and personalized medicine approaches to treating kidney cancer. This work could lead to new targeted therapies for the treatment of RCC – and perhaps to the next big breakthrough in the fight against a disease notorious for resisting conventional therapies.
Text from: Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute.
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