title: Kidney cancer: identification of novel targets for therapy.
abstract: Kidney cancer, although relatively rare when compared to other malignancies, occurs not uncommonly in patients with renal disease and is often discovered incidentally during the initial nephrologic work-up, or by the savvy clinician who is familiar with the paraneoplastic signs. While surgical approaches are generally curative when the disease is confined to the kidney, one-third of the cases that present in the metastatic form and require conventional medical therapy are associated with a truly dismal patient survival rate. In light of the emerging knowledge of the molecular mechanisms of kidney cancer oncogenesis, several novel and promising therapeutic approaches are emerging. In this review, we summarize the current state of kidney cancer diagnosis and therapy, as well as some of the novel treatments that capitalize on those newly elucidated molecular pathways that are deranged in this disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine and Cancer Center, Division of Nephrology, University of California, Davis, California 95616, USA. rhweiss@ucdavis.edu
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.forename: P-Y
authors.initials: PY
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002292:Carcinoma, Renal Cell / Q000209:etiology / Q000235:genetics / Q000628:therapy; D050759:Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p21 / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors; D006801:Humans; D051793:Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1 / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000502:physiology; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology / Q000235:genetics; D009154:Mutation; D047428:Protein Kinase Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use; D020123:Sirolimus / Q000627:therapeutic use; D051794:Von Hippel-Lindau Tumor Suppressor Protein / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: C493956:CDKN1A protein, human; D050759:Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p21; D051793:Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1; D047428:Protein Kinase Inhibitors; D051794:Von Hippel-Lindau Tumor Suppressor Protein; C497446:VHL protein, human; D020123:Sirolimus