New Strategies in Renal Cell Carcinoma: Targeting the Genetic and Metabolic Basis of Disease

The development of new forms of treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma over the past two decades has been primarily focused on targeting the VHL/HIF pathway. The recent identification of mutations of chromatin-remodeling genes in clear-cell renal carcinoma (ccRCC), of genomic heterogeneity, and of a Warburg-like metabolic phenotype in advanced disease has had a profound effect on our understanding of the evolution of ccRCC and on potential approaches to personalized therapy. Early approaches to therapy for patients with advanced type I papillary RCC that have centered around the MET/HGF pathway will expand as more genomic information becomes available. Sporadic and familial type II papillary renal cell carcinoma are characterized by enhanced aerobic glycolysis and share an antioxidant response phenotype. In fumarate hydratase-deficient RCC, fumarate-induced succination of KEAP1 activates Nrf2 signaling. CUL3 and Nrf2 mutations as well as an Nrf2 activation phenotype are found in sporadic type II papillary RCC. Therapeutic approaches designed to target the Nrf2 pathway as well as to impair blood flow and glucose delivery in these cancers that are highly dependent on a robust tumor vasculature and on ready availability of glucose for energy production and glycolysis are in development. (C) 2015 AACR.