SCIENTISTS have revealed the precise identity of cancer cells of the most common childhood and adult kidney cancers following the first experiment of its kind.

Researchers showed that the cancer cells are versions of specific healthy cells from developing or adult kidneys.

Reported in the journal, Science, this study could lead to the development of completely new methods of treating kidney cancers, which could persuade the cancerous cells to develop in specific ways into safer cells.

Professor of Dermatology and Immunology at Newcastle University, Muzlifah Haniffa, a corresponding author on the paper, said: “Using large-scale single cell RNA sequencing we could precisely define the characteristics of kidney tumour cells for the first time, and compare them with healthy reference kidney cells from different development stages and ages.

“This approach will help towards understanding not only kidney cancer, but many other diseases that have their origin during development.”

Kidney cancer is the seventh most common cancer in the UK with 12,500 new cases in 2015, mainly of adults with renal cell carcinomas.

The most prevalent childhood kidney cancer is Wilms’ tumour, with about 80 children diagnosed each year.

It mainly affects children under five, and although treatment for Wilms’ is usually successful, the chemotherapy can have serious long-term effects.

Dr Sam Behjati, leader of the study from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and Cambridge University’s Department of Paediatrics, said: “This could lead to an entirely new model for treating childhood cancer, by manipulating the development state of the cells instead of trying to kill them with chemotherapy.”