Interview with Dr. Bratslavsky & Dr. Mollapour from SUNY Upstate Medical University

Oncotarget published " Sixth BHD Symposium and First International Upstate Kidney Cancer Symposium: latest scientific and clinical discoveries " which reported that the Sixth BHD Symposium and First International Upstate Kidney Cancer Symposium concluded in September 2015, in Syracuse, NY, USA.

The program highlighted recent findings in a variety of areas, including drug development, therapeutics and surgical management of patients with BHD and multi-focal renal tumors, as well as multidisciplinary approaches for patients with localized, locally advanced and metastatic renal cell carcinoma .

Dr. Mehdi Mollapour and Dr. Gennady Bratslavsky, both from The SUNY Upstate Medical University said, " Worldwide nearly 338,000 people develop kidney cancer every year, and over 100,000 people die from the disease "

In contrast to VHL, Birt-Hogg-Dub ésyndrome is a rare inherited cancer syndrome that predisposes affected individuals to develop kidney tumors, pulmonary cysts, and benign skin tumors.

Germline mutations in the tumor suppressor gene Folliculin cause BHD syndrome.

FLCN behaves as a haploinsufficient tumor suppressor in skin lesions, whereas a loss of function of both alleles is reported in kidney tumors.

Figure 2: Simplified representation of the kidney cancer gene pathways. Kidney cancer is fundamentally a metabolic disease with each of the kidney cancer genes (in red), VHL, MET, FLCN, FH, SDH, TSC1, TSC2, PTEN and TFE3 disrupts the ability of cells to sense oxygen, iron, nutrients, and energy. (Figure 2 adapted from these references [23, 24]).

Patients with BHD syndrome and other types of kidney cancer also attended the meeting.

The Mollapour/Bratslavsky Research Team concluded in their Oncotarget Meeting Report that they have seen some considerable advances in the treatment of RCC in the past decade based on research that found the causes of kidney cancer.

There are approximately 15 genes, including FLCN and VHL, that can cause kidney cancer and each of those genes is involved in tumorigenesis.

The exchange of information between the different research areas will substantially contribute to understanding of RCC tumor initiation and progression as well as a whole new way for diagnosis and treatment.

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DOI - https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.7733

Full text - https://www.oncotarget.com/article/7733/text/

Correspondence to - Mehdi Mollapour - [email protected] and Gennady Bratslavsky - [email protected]

Keywords - FLCN, Birt-Hogg-Dub ésyndrome, renal cell carcinoma, clear cell renal cell carcinoma