Novel Mechanisms and Targets in Renal Cell Carcinoma Progression |Biomedgrid

The consensus of The European Renal Cancer Roundtable meeting held in Brussels in 2019 was that the most pressing challenge is improved early detection. Each year sees around 400 000 new cases of kidney cancer worldwide. The 10 countries with the highest rates of kidney cancer are all in Europe; from Belarus to Iceland. Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC) accounts for 80% of all kidney cancers. RCC are reported as a diverse group such as clear cell (-70% of the total) and of proximal tubule origin as well as papillary (~10%) and chromophobe (~5%), the latter 2 of distal tubule origin with a large number of gene mutations [1]. Yet, there are few causal genes driving RCC. The VHL gene is a common initiating mutation in Clear Cell RCC (ccRCC) but loss of VHL function is insufficient to develop ccRCC. There are environmental/behavioural associations with RCC including some of the usual suspects, smoking and obesity as well regular or prolonged acetaminophen use. When pre-metastatic RCC is treated, usually with surgery, 5- and 10-year survival rates are good. 5-year survival rates for metastatic RCC are generally poor, less than 10%, despite the use of antiangiogenic tyrosine kinase inhibitors such as sunitinib. Unfortunately, due to substantial renal reserve more than 50% of RCC are detected incidentally and often when it has already spread [2].