Acta Medica Nagasakiensia
Print ISSN : 0001-6055
Molecular Targeting Therapy for Renal Cell Carcinoma: Current Status and Our Suggestion
Yasuyoshi MIYATA
Author information
JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

2007 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 39-43

Details
Abstract

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is a common urological malignancy. Patients with low stage RCC have a good prognosis by radical operation. On the other hand, advanced RCC do not respond to most treatment and survival is poor in such patients. Some immuno-therapies were performed to patients with advanced RCC, but the patients who obtained clinically meaningful benefit were very limited. To identify promising targets for novel therapeutic agents, numerous investigations have been carried out regarding the molecular mechanisms of tumor growth and progression. Recently, some molecular-targeting therapies, including anti-vascular endothelial growth factor agent, have demonstrated to prolong survival in phase II and III trials. However, such treatments also showed limited anti-tumoral effects and various severe side effects beyond expectation. These results necessitate more extensive and profound knowledge of pathological features to discuss the treatment strategies for RCC. We have been investigating the molecular mechanism of cancer cell invasion and metastasis in patients with RCC for last few years, and we have obtained several new findings and information about them. In this article, we will describe clinical and pathological significance of several invasion-related and/or angiogenesis-related factors, such as matrix metalloproteinases, thrombospondin, and hepatocyte growth factor/c-Met. These factors are well known to regulate invasive function, angiogenesis, and cancer cell proliferation in various malignant tumors, and animal experiments demonstrated that some selective molecular inhibitors of them could inhibit tumorigenicity and tumor development. Our studies show that some molecular inhibitors may provide a novel therapeutic approach to RCC.

Content from these authors
© 2007 by Nagasaki University School of Medicine
Next article
feedback
Top