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The Metabolism of Renal Cell Carcinomas and Liver Cancer

  • Tu Nguyen
  • Anne Le
Chapter
Part of the Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology book series (AEMB, volume 1063)

Abstract

According to data from the American Cancer Society, cancer is one of the deadliest health problems globally. Annually, renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and liver cancer cause more than 100,000 and 800,000 deaths worldwide, respectively [1–4], creating an urgent need to develop effective therapeutic treatments to increase patient survival outcomes. New therapeutic treatments are expected to address a major factor contributing to cancer’s resistance to standard therapies: oncogenic heterogeneity. Because gene expression can vary tremendously among different types of cancers, different patients of the same tumor type, and even within individual tumors, various metabolic phenotypes can emerge, making single-therapy approaches insufficient. This heterogeneity translates into changes in the landscape of metabolic enzymes and biomolecules within both the cancer cell and tumor microenvironment. Novel strategies targeting the diverse metabolism of cancers aim to overcome this obstacle, and though some have yielded positive results, it remains a challenge to uncover all of the distinct metabolic profiles of RCC and liver cancer. Nonetheless, the metabolic-oriented research focusing on these cancers has offered different, fresh new perspectives, which are expected to contribute heavily to the development of new therapeutic treatments.

Keywords

Renal cell carcinoma Primary liver cancer Metabolic phenotypes Glucose metabolism Glutamine metabolism Oncogenic heterogeneity 

Abbreviations

α-KG

α-Ketoglutarate

ACC

Acetyl-CoA carboxylase

AMPK

AMP-activated protein kinase

ATP

Adenosine triphosphate

ccRCC

Clear-cell renal cell carcinoma

CL

Cardiolipin

COX5B

Cytochrome C oxidase subunit 5B

DEN

Diethylnitrosamine

ePC

Ether-type phosphatidylcholine

ePE

Ether-type PE

ERRα

Estrogen-related receptor Α

FASN

Fatty acid synthase

FH

Fumarate hydratase

G6PH

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase

GLS2

Glutaminase 2

Glu

Glutamine

GLUT1

Glucose transporter 1

GLUT2

Glucose transporter 2

HCC

Hepatocellular carcinoma

HIF

Hypoxia-inducible factor

HIF-1α

Hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha

HK2

Hexokinase 2

LCSCs

Liver cancer stem cells

LDHA

Lactate dehydrogenase A

LRH-1

Liver receptor homolog 1

Me1

Malic enzyme 1

MIR21

MicroRNAs-21

mTORC1

Mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1

NADPH

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate

Non-LCSCs

Non-liver cancer stem cells

PE

Phosphatidylethanolamine

PGK1

Phosphoglycerate kinase 1

PGLS

6-Phosphogluconolactonase

PI3K

Phosphatidylinositol-3 kinases

PTEN

Phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted in chromosome 10

RCC

Renal cell carcinoma

ROS

Reactive oxygen species

SM

Sphingomyelin

STF-31

4-[[[[4-(1,1-Dimethylethyl)phenyl]sulfonyl]amino]methyl]-N-3-pyridinyl-benzamide

TALDO

Transaldolase

TKT

Transketolase

TSC2

Tuberous sclerosis 2

VEGFR

Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor

VHL

Von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor gene

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Copyright information

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of PathologyJohns Hopkins University School of MedicineBaltimoreUSA
  2. 2.Department of Pathology and OncologyJohns Hopkins University School of MedicineBaltimoreUSA

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