Katie Coleman, Founder at OncoLogic Solutions, shared Chromophobe and Oncocytic Tumor Alliance (COA)’s post on LinkedIn, adding:
“Speaking of gratitude. If you catch the break in my voice about half way through this interview while discussing the progress in chromophobe RCC in the past 5 years, know that’s the immense gratitude I have for the work and progress being made in chRCC seeping through.
In that moment, when Samer Salem shares his excitement over the growing momentum and how sparse research was on chRCC even just 10 years ago, I flashed back to the conversations I encountered when I began advocating for chRCC and asking questions about why research was so limited.
- It’s too rare
- No one will invest the time
- There’s no funding
- There aren’t enough patients
- It’s just how it is
Refusing to accept these answers at face value I began fundraising and advocating with a group of young women affected by chRCC. We didn’t know who the researchers would one day be who’d care enough about chromophobe to invest their time in it but we were determined to champion it, in hopes someone would.
The crack in my voice is so brief many will miss it. But the gratitude and reflection in that moment was overpowering as I thought about just how much progress has been made in such a short period of time. And how I’d gone from being assured no one would invest their time in chRCC due to its rarity, to now interviewing Samer Salem who had just dedicated three years to understanding the biology of chRCC in Dr. Elizabeth Henske’s lab.
It takes a village to advance research on rare cancers. From federal funding and grant efforts to grassroots advocacy, it requires all hands on deck.
These moments are my why.
I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation with Samer Salem talking about FSP1, Ferroptosis Suppressor Protein 1 in chromophobe RCC and hope you do too.”
Quoting Chromophobe and Oncocytic Tumor Alliance’s post:
“New Research: Targeting FSP1 in Chromophobe Renal Cell Carcinoma
We’re excited to share a new video featuring Dr. Samer Salem, who recently completed his postdoctoral fellowship in Dr. Elizabeth Henske’s laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, discussing their recent paper on FSP1 (Ferroptosis Suppressor Protein 1) in chromophobe renal cell carcinoma.
Chromophobe kidney cancer has historically been understudied, with treatments often derived from clear cell RCC research rather than chromophobe-specific biology. This is changing.
Key findings from this research:
- Chromophobe RCC shows the second-highest increase in FSP1 expression compared to normal kidney tissue among all cancers studied in TCGA
- Higher FSP1 levels correlate with poorer patient survival outcomes
- Dual inhibition of FSP1 and the glutathione/GPX4 pathway demonstrates strong synergy.”
More posts featuring Katie Coleman.