Introduction

CAGEKID is funded through the EU Framework Programme 7 to apply state-of-art genomic approaches to identify biomarkers of most common form of clear-cell renal carcinoma, the most common form of renal cell cancer (RCC). The CAGEKID investigations will meet a major need to identify novel biological markers for RCC, which is one of very few tumour types for which there are currently no biological markers that are in routine clinical use. RCC is a particularly serious public health problem within Europe, where the highest global incidence of disease is found. The incidence of RCC has been increasing in Europe over the last two decades, and it is now the 8th most common cancer.

The CAGEKID consortium brings together expertise clinical and epidemiological resources with genomic expertise. It is composed of 14 partners from 6 EU countries and Russia, and at the International Agency for Cancer Research in Lyon, France to achieve the goal of identifying of biomarkers for RCC through genomic characterisation of more than 500 tumours. The CAGEKID study forms part the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) effort, which has the goal of obtaining a comprehensive description of genomic, transcriptomic and epigenomic changes in 50 different tumour types and/or subtypes with the aim of elucidating the genomic changes present in the many forms of cancers that contribute to the burden of disease throughout the world. Further information about the ICGC programme can be found here.