RCC Histologies
Arnab Basu, MD, MPH, FACP provides an overview of RCC histologies.
Matthew Fowler: We have with us today Dr Arnab Basu, Associate Scientist at the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Assistant Professor at the UAB School of Medicine in Birmingham, Alabama. Thank you for joining us today, Dr Basu. Let’s get started.
Arnab Basu, MD, MPH, FACP: Thank you for having me, Matt.
Matthew Fowler: So, let’s start and set the foundation with a general background of RCC [renal cell carcinoma]. What are the different histologies patients with RCC can present with, and are some of them more aggressive than others?
Arnab Basu, MD, MPH, FACP: That’s a very good question. Sometimes we have to establish that RCC is not one disease, so when folks are talking about clinical trial results etc., most of these trials are conducted in clear cell RCC, which tends to be about 80% to 75% of renal malignancies. The other 25% is what we call non-clear cell RCCs. There are several kinds of these, but the most common non-clear cell tends to be papillary RCC, followed by other kinds like chromophobe. I think you raised a great point there; how do those behave? Each RCC behaves distinctly from other types. Papillary tends to have a somewhat more indolent course than clear cell; chromophobe as well. However, there are extremely aggressive malignancies such as collecting ducts [Bellini RCC] or medullary RCC, which are perhaps on par with pancreatic cancer, or maybe even worse, in terms of prognosis and therapeutic options.
Transcript edited for clarity.
In an OncView™ program, David H. Aggen, MD, PhD, Robert S. Alter, MD, Arnab Basu, MD, MPH, FACP, Mehmet Asim Bilen, MD, and Chung-Han Lee, MD, MPH, offer their expert insights for the treatment of RCC.
