ABSTRACT
Adult renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is one of the 10 most common human malignancies in developed countries. Its global incidence has been increasing continuously over the past 30 years (1). Males are afflicted twice as often compared to females, and several genetic factors, such as the von Hippel Lindau (VHL) gene are known to play a role in a subset of RCC. Apart from these typical markers, other genes known to be involved in RCC include VEGF (2, 3), EGFR (4, 5), TGFA (6), c-myc proto-oncogene (7, 8) and VIM (9). RCC is divided into clear cell (ccRCC; 80% of all cases), papillary (pRCC, 10%), chromophobe (chRCC, 5%), and several other rare types. Although the histopathological diagnosis of kidney cancer is well established in the clinical routine, the molecular basis for the distinction of RCC types is poorly understood.
