New hope or drawbacks: Will chronic kidney disease be treatable with small molecules in the near future?

摘要

Efforts have been made in recent years towards the understanding and treatment of kidney cancer, including renal cell carcinoma and renal pelvic cancer. The lineup of chemotherapeutic agents against these forms of cancer has been expanded with mTOR inhibitors (temsirolimus and everolimus) and, most notably, with the tyrosine kinase inhibitors sorafenib and sunitinib. These new drugs have replaced the former first-line combination of cisplatin and gemcitabine and, besides bringing a lot of benefit to kidney cancer patients, have helped to understand a lot more of renal cancer genesis [l]. Whilst the treatment of kidney cancer has made a big step forward, chronic renal disease as second high incidence renal defect, with approximately 500 million patients worldwide, is still missing an adequate therapy [2].