Targeted therapy for patients with renal-cell carcinoma

BI Rini - The Lancet Oncology, 2011 - thelancet.com
The Lancet Oncology, 2011thelancet.com
The most important recent advances in oncology have been the identification and
therapeutic targeting of specific molecular changes in tumour biology (eg, EGFR and ALK
mutations in lung cancer and HER2 amplification in breast cancer). The fundamental
change in renal-cell carcinoma is somatic von Hippel–Lindau gene silencing, which drives
tumour angiogenesis through VEGF overexpression, evident in the clinical activity reported
with VEGF-targeting therapy. 1, 2 Notably, VEGF acts mainly in the tumour stoma (ie …
The most important recent advances in oncology have been the identification and therapeutic targeting of specific molecular changes in tumour biology (eg, EGFR and ALK mutations in lung cancer and HER2 amplification in breast cancer). The fundamental change in renal-cell carcinoma is somatic von Hippel–Lindau gene silencing, which drives tumour angiogenesis through VEGF overexpression, evident in the clinical activity reported with VEGF-targeting therapy. 1, 2 Notably, VEGF acts mainly in the tumour stoma (ie, endothelial cell) and not directly on the tumour cell itself. Predictive molecular biomarkers for outcomes from VEGF-targeted therapy, however, have been elusive.
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