Genomics of renal cell cancer-- does it provide breakthrough?

It is a strong hope that the more we characterize the pathways in an individual tumor, the better we will be able to evaluate the response to a specific therapy. Different array technologies could be powerful tools to achieve this goal, i.e. selecting patients on the basis of the genomic and/or proteomic profiles who would really benefit from the target-designed therapy. Genomic analysis of RCC accumulated ample of data which now can be exploited in clinical management of a previously almost uncontrollable disease. Beside the previously identified genetic abnormalities (VHL, MET, EGFR), CAIX seems to be a novel molecular marker of RCC. Array studies also outlined a small set of tumor markers, vimentin, galectin-3, CD74 and parvalbumin, which can define the individual histologic subtypes of RCC. We are at the beginning to take advantage of the genomic results. Some new approaches will interfere with the progression of RCC (anti-VEGF, anti-VEGFR or anti-EGFR therapies). Further novel molecular targets are available, such as HIF, HSP90 or the IFN-regulated genes, which can be used to the fine-tuning of RCC therapy.