Bioinformatics reveals origins of several rare subtypes of kidney cancer

The origins of seven types of kidney cancer, including several rare subtypes, have been identified by researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute (Cambridgeshire, UK) Great Ormond Street Hospital (London, UK), the Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology and Oncode Institute (both Utrecht, Netherlands). The findings confirm that these cancers have their origin in specific forms of developmental cells present in the maturing fetus. The study, published recently in Nature Communications, used bioinformatic analyses to compare reference data from the Human Cell Atlas and pinpoint specific patterns of gene expression exhibited by different kidney cancer subtypes as they develop. The research...