Genetic Predisposition to Kidney Cancer

Kidney cancer is not a single disease but is made up of a number of different types of cancer classified by histology that are disparate in presentation, clinical course, and genetic basis. Studies of families with inherited renal cell carcinoma (RCC) have provided the basis for our understanding of the causative genes and altered metabolic pathways in renal cancer with different histologies. Von Hippel-Lindau disease was the first renal cancer disorder with a defined genetic basis. Over the next two decades, the genes responsible for a number of other inherited renal cancer syndromes including hereditary papillary renal carcinoma, Birt-Hogg-Dube ´syndrome, hereditary leiomyomatosis and renal cell carcinoma, and succinate dehydrogenase-associated renal cancer were identified.
Source: Seminars in Oncology - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Source Type: research