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Researchers have linked a gene in the brain to the development of kidney cancer. New research reveals that a gene that controls brain growth and development significantly influences the growth of the most common form of kidney cancer called clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

The latest study reveal that the gene NPTX2, significantly influences this cancer type. Researchers said this is worrying as this type of cancer is generally resistant to common chemotherapy, and less than 10 percent of patients experience a five-year overall survival rate.

Researchers said the next step is to see if NPTX2 influences other cancers.

"We found that a gene known to play a role in the healthy brain is also the No. 1 gene associated with this most lethal of all urological cancers," senior investigator and molecular biologist John A. Copland, Ph.D., said in a news release.

"We don't know why NPTX2 is expressed in kidney cancer, but we now know what it is doing and how it contributes to cancer progression," he said. "We also have very promising ideas about how to attack the NPTX2 protein - which may provide a much-needed new strategy to treat this kidney cancer."

In the study, researchers compared genomic profiling of nearly 100 kidney cancer patient samples and matched normal kidney samples to spot genes that were either over-expressed or under-expressed.

Researchers found that the NPTX2 gene was the most over-expressed gene associated with kidney cancer.

"Nobody ever looked for NPTX2 as a potential tumor promoter in kidney cancer or any other cancer, from what we can tell," co-author Derek Radisky, Ph.D., a cancer biologist, said in a statement "Before this study, the concept that it could even play a role in cancer had not been suspected."

The study also revealed that the GluR4 receptor, which is usually targeted by the NPTX2 protein, is also found in the samples of kidney cancer patients.

Researchers explain that the NPTX2 protein triggers GluR4 proteins to cluster and form a channel into the cell that helps calcium flow in.

"Elevated calcium triggers multiple signaling pathways that promote cell doubling, survival and changes in the cell that promote cancer invasion and metastasis," Copland concluded.

The findings were published in Cancer Research.