The Institute of Cancer Research, Fulham Road, London SW3 6JB, UK.
BMC Med. 2012 Sep 27;10:112. doi: 10.1186/1741-7015-10-112.
Significant advances in our understanding of the biology of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) have been achieved in recent years. These insights have led to the introduction of novel targeted therapies, revolutionising the management of patients with advanced disease. Nevertheless, there are still no biomarkers in routine clinical use in RCC. Tools used routinely to determine prognosis have not changed over the past decade; classification remains largely morphology based; and patients continue to be exposed to potentially toxic therapy with no indication of the likelihood of response. Thus the need for biomarkers in RCC is urgent. Here, we focus on recent advances in our understanding of the genetics and epigenetics of RCC, and the potential for such knowledge to provide novel markers and therapeutic targets. We highlight on-going research that is likely to deliver further candidate markers as well as generating large, well-annotated sample banks that will facilitate future studies. It is imperative that promising candidates are validated using these resources, and in subsequent prospective clinical trials, so that future biomarkers may be used in the clinic to personalize patient care.
近年来，我们对肾细胞癌 (RCC) 生物学的理解取得了重大进展。这些见解导致了新型靶向治疗的引入，彻底改变了晚期疾病患者的治疗方法。然而，目前在 RCC 中没有常规临床使用的生物标志物。过去十年中，用于确定预后的常规工具没有改变；分类仍然主要基于形态学；并且患者继续接受潜在的毒性治疗，而没有反应可能性的迹象。因此，RCC 急需生物标志物。在这里，我们重点介绍我们对 RCC 的遗传学和表观遗传学的最新认识，以及这些知识为提供新的标记物和治疗靶点提供的潜力。我们强调正在进行的研究，这些研究很可能会提供更多的候选标记物，并产生大型、注释良好的样本库，从而促进未来的研究。使用这些资源并在随后的前瞻性临床试验中验证有前途的候选物是至关重要的，以便未来的生物标志物可以在临床上用于个性化患者护理。
