Grant Information

Despite the clinical application of targeted therapies and immunotherapies, there is still an unmet need for effective therapy in the treatment of kidney cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates that approximately 81,600 new kidney cancer cases will be diagnosed this year, with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) making up about 85% of those cases. Despite recent treatment advancements, approximately 14,000 people in the United States are expected to die from this disease in 2024. The recent combination of anti-angiogenic tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) in the first-line treatment of metastatic RCC represents a great advance in kidney cancer treatment. However, treatment outcomes remain imperfe...

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Despite the clinical application of targeted therapies and immunotherapies, there is still an unmet need for effective therapy in the treatment of kidney cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates that approximately 81,600 new kidney cancer cases will be diagnosed this year, with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) making up about 85% of those cases. Despite recent treatment advancements, approximately 14,000 people in the United States are expected to die from this disease in 2024. The recent combination of anti-angiogenic tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) in the first-line treatment of metastatic RCC represents a great advance in kidney cancer treatment. However, treatment outcomes remain imperfect with many patients ultimately experiencing therapy resistance and tumor progression. The ability to selectively deliver highly effective therapeutic agents to RCC tumors is a significant challenge and represents the next-generation approach to effective therapy. This study will evaluate promising (first-in-class) small-molecule drug conjugates (SMDCs) that effectively target prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) that is prevalent in the blood vessels feeding RCC tumors. These SMDCs will deliver unique therapeutic agents (payloads) that function to shutdown tumor-associated vasculature and are also highly cytotoxic. Thus, the selective delivery of these payloads will provide therapeutic efficacy against RCC tumors by knocking out the blood flow, thus starving the tumors of necessary oxygen and nutrients. It is anticipated that the result will be tumor death and significantly improved outcomes for RCC patients.

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