Damon Runyon Researchers

Dr. Riscal aims to identify to identify novel therapeutic strategies that would ultimately benefit most “Clear cell renal cell carcinoma” (ccRCC) patients. Because of obesity and an aging population, the incidence of ccRCC has steadily risen over the last decade. If ccRCC is detected early and can be surgically resected, five-year survival rates are relatively favorable. However, metastatic disease has a catastrophic five-year survival rate of less than 10%. At that stage, treatments are sometimes ineffective due to the established resistance of ccRCC to conventional therapies. Dr. Riscal has found consistent changes in cholesterol metabolism in renal tumors compared to healthy kidney and is currently exploring whether cholesterol dependency of ccRCC could be a promising targetable liability.