Dr Sun on Ongoing Research Efforts Examining Clonal Hematopoiesis in RCC

Maxine Sun, PhD, MPH, research scientist, Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, research consultant, Brigham and Women's Hospital, discusses ongoing research efforts dedicated to examining the relationship between clonal hematopoiesis and cardiovascular disease in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Data from a study presented at the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting indicated that patients with clonal hematopoiesis were at a higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease and coronary artery disease. Sub-analyses revealed that this risk was higher in those with RCC who harbored somatic mosaic chromosomal alterations, suggesting that clonal hematopoiesis could represent a relevant potential risk factor in this disease.

Investigators at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute received a grant to further explore these events in patients with kidney cancer. Specifically, they hope to explore some of the genetic correlations between hematopoietic phenotypes and RCC to determine whether there is similar genetic architecture, according to Sun; this could help identify some key pathways, she adds.

Additionally, investigators hope to replicate an association that was previously observed in population-based data, which suggested that clonal hematopoiesis, or more specifically, mosaic chromosome alterations, is still associated with cardiovascular disease in different population-based settings, Sun expands. Next steps will be to examine institutional databases, as well as other real-world findings to determine whether that effect can be replicated, Sun adds.

Efforts are also underway to better understand whether there are certain inflammatory markers that are associated with carriers of clonal hematopoiesis, Sun continues. Preliminary research has suggested that patients with clonal hematopoiesis tend to have higher levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, which is a traditional marker for inflammation. This observation could be revisited in a database that contains more inflammatory markers, and may reveal additional insights on this association, Sun concludes.