Renal Cell Carcinoma Microenvironment Discovery Project

This study is an observational prospective trial where renal cell carcinoma samples are isolated from nephrectomy specimens in a multi-regional manner and subjected to an integrated genomic, proteomic, pathological, radiological assessment to provide a detailed morphological and molecular view of the RCC microenvironment. The major genomics technologies used to examine tumour specimens include single cell RNA sequencing including nuclear (NUCseq) and epitope sequencing (CITEseq). Additionally, bulk RNA/DNA sequencing, targeted mutational profiling, and imaging mass cytometry will be performed. These technologies will determine mutational and gene/protein expression profiles of various heterogeneous cell populations within the tumour microenvironment, including cancer, immune, and supporting cells. This will allow identification of mutations and abnormal expression patterns within individual cells, that will be used to infer targetable vulnerabilities and biomarker signatures.