Source: NPR
A researcher has found a potential therapy for patients with kidney cancer, which historically hasn’t responded well to other therapies, such as radiation and chemotherapy.
Most cancerous kidney cells — also known as renal cells – have lost a gene called VHL, says Amato Giaccia, a cancer researcher at the Stanford University School of Medicine. And as he reports in the journal Cancer Cell, Giaccia has found a new compound, STF-62247, that causes death to kidney cancer cells missing VHL.
The drug works by altering a natural process inside cells. All cells have a kind of internal recycling process, called autophagy, where compounds inside the cell are broken down and their chemicals re-used. But Giaccia says there is normally a balance.
This is likely many years away, but likley will be the future for treatment of various cancers. This particular therapy is a medicine, but I believe that gene therapy, vaccines, and targetted medicines will one day be able to cure many cancers without the need for surgery or radiation.