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A new study details how the accumulation of copper helps clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC)—the most common kidney cancer—grow and advance in stage. Copper is an essential trace element that is required to produce energy in the body and allows humans to live in an oxygen-containing atmosphere. Maria Czyzyk-Krzeska, MD, Ph.D. said that increased accumulation of copper is associated with worse outcomes for patients with ccRCC. Czyzyk-Krzeska and her colleagues established that ccRCC cells accumulate more copper as they advance from stage 1 toward metastatic disease. The team found high copper levels help cancer cells make more of a...

A small clinical trial suggests that a duo of drugs can extend survival for people battling advanced kidney cancer. Researchers developed the new regimen, a combination of pazopanib (Votrient) and bevacizumab (Avastin). Pazopanib is from a class of cancer drugs known as tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). These drugs work by blocking vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signaling—a key mechanism that cancer cells need to grow. In prior trials that led to pazopanib's approval by the U.S. FDA, the drug led to an average survival (without cancer progression) of just over 11 months among people diagnosed with kidney tumors. The new...

15 years ago, a woman in her thirties was diagnosed with metastatic kidney cancer. The oncologist, José Pablo Maroto, decided to treat her with the drug temsirolimus, which worked much better than expected. The patient beat the cancer. Nine years later, bone metastasis was detected, but temsirolimus was once again effective. Now, we know why temsirolimus proved so effective in this case and in that of two other patients. This finding will allow clinicians to identify other kidney cancer patients for whom temsirolimus will likely be the ideal treatment. At the moment, drugs like temsirolimus—so-called mTOR inhibitors—are only used when...

Immunotherapies, such as anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1, have become standard first line therapies for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer). Most patients, however, eventually experience disease progression, with no consensus on what therapy to use next. In an open-label phase 2 study, researchers investigated for the first time the combination of cabozantinib, a VEGF TKI, plus belzutifan, a HIF-2α inhibitor. Belzutifan has shown antitumor activity and favorable safety in heavily pretreated advanced kidney cancer. The researchers previously reported results for cohort 1 of the trial, called LITESPARK-003. This study reports on cohort 2, which includes patients diagnosed with advanced...

Patients with advanced kidney cancer who received a new combination treatment reported health-related quality of life outcomes that were either similar or improved, compared to patients who received standard first-line therapy, according to a study. The findings underscore the potential for the new treatment combination in improving patients' course of treatment and extending survival, said David Cella, Ph.D. "Effective treatment options have never been better for this disease. Patients' reports of how they are feeling and functioning is certainly meaningful to them, and also can help clinicians when guiding continued quality care," said Cellaz Advanced kidney cancer occurs when cancer...

Scientists are calling for more research on the possibility that some supposedly healthful plant-based antioxidants — including those renowned for their apparent ability to prevent cancer — may actually aggravate or even cause cancer in some individuals. Their recommendation follows a study in which two such antioxidants — quercetin and ferulic acid — appeared to aggravate kidney cancer in severely diabetic laboratory rats. The study appears in ACS' bi-weekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Kuan-Chou Chen, Robert Peng, and colleagues note that vegetables, fruits, and other plant-based foods are rich in antioxidants that appear to fight cancer, diabetes, heart...

On July 27, 2006, the European Union (EU) followed America's lead and gave conditional approve to Pfizer's new drug Sutent (sunitinib, formerly known as SU11248) as a treatment for advanced kidney cancer. The drug is also being used as a treatment for a rare type of cancer known as gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST).But how effective is it?Sutent is one of the latest crop of 'targeted' therapies for various kinds of cancer. It is given as a 50 milligram (mg) pill once per day. Technically speaking, it contains small-molecule inhibitors of the tyrosine kinase portion of the VEGF and PDGF receptors. ...

In late July, the European Commission (EC) approved the drug Nexavar (sorafenib, formerly known as BAY 43-9006) for the treatment of advanced kidney cancer. Nexavar is classified as an oral multikinase inhibitor targeting tumors and their blood supply. It is similar in many ways to Pfizer's new drug Sutent. In December 2005, Nexavar was given "fast track" approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the same indication as Sutent. (A "fast track" review is aimed at speeding up the approval process for drugs designed to treat patients with serious or life-threatening diseases, where there is an unmet...