Metabolism and oxidative stress response pathways in kidney cancer: a tale of chance and necessity.

Over 270,000 patients are affected with kidney cancer worldwide and 120,000 died from this disease in 2014. Over the last few decades, important progress has been made in our understanding of the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying the growth of these tumors, which has led to improvement in patient care. Some of the most significant recent advances came from the increasing number of large datasets generated by bioinformatics (genomics, proteomics, etc.) and their integration to characterize the genetic and molecular factors responsible for kidney tumor development and survival. Interestingly, deregulated metabolism and oxidative stress pathways are commonly found in advanced-stage kidney tumors and are important factors to consider and potentially target when developing therapeutic approaches.