Papillary renal cell carcinoma (pRCC) is a broad and mixed group of kidney tumours that behave differently from one another. Early-stage disease can often be cured with surgery, but once pRCC spreads, we still don’t fully understand how it works or how best to treat it. Today, patients are usually given the same drugs used for another kidney cancer type (clear cell RCC), even though the two diseases are biologically different. Not surprisingly, this often leads to inconsistent and sometimes poor results.

Our early research shows that about one-third of pRCC tumours have a specific metabolic defect that boosts a pathway called HIF, leading to more blood vessel growth, more immune cells entering the tumour, and a higher chance of metastasis. This subgroup may actually respond well to current anti-angiogenic drugs and immunotherapy—highlighting the need for personalised treatment instead of a one-size-fits-all approach.

The goal of the pRCC-TREAT project is to understand the molecular and metabolic makeup of metastatic pRCC, identify biomarkers that predict which treatments will work in each patient, and discover new drug targets. We will also create the world’s largest research resource for metastatic pRCC, including tumour samples, laboratory models, and a detailed clinical and molecular database. By combining multiple layers of molecular data with real-world treatment responses and drug-testing results from pRCC models, we aim to develop signatures that can guide drug choices. Insights gained may also apply to other cancers with similar biology.

In short, pRCC-TREAT aims to bring truly personalised therapy to a poorly understood and underserved cancer.