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Background. Standard treatment for patients with unresectable colorectal cancer metastases includes chemotherapy regimens based on irinotecan, oxaliplatin, fluoropyrimidines, anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy, and anti-EGFR. Additional therapeutic options are needed for patients with good performance status who have disease progression during or after standard therapies. Methods. A nonrandomized phase II study was modeled as a two-stage Chen design. Eligible patients had a diagnosis of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) with progression after prior cytotoxic regimens based on oxaliplatin and irinotecan. Treatment consisted of mitomycin C in combination with high-dose 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and folinic acid (the MLF regimen; mitomycin C as an intravenous bolus of 6 mg/m 2 i.v. on days 1 and 22 every 7 weeks; folinic acid at 250 mg/m 2 in combination with 5-FU at 2,600 mg/m 2 as a continuous intravenous infusion (24 hours) weekly for 6 of every 7 weeks. Results. The median age of the 74 eligible patients was 62 years (range: 47-79 years). In these heavily pretreated patients with mCRC, the MLF regimen was the fourth or fifth line in more than 60% of the patients. Two patients (3.2%) achieved a partial response, and 33 (53.2%) achieved a best response of stable disease, defined as neither sufficient shrinkage to qualify for partial response nor sufficient increase to qualify for progressive disease. Median progression-free survival was 4.9 months. The median overall survival was 9.7 months. The most common nonhematologic side effects included mucositis (24.4% for all grades, and 9.5% with grade 3/4), diarrhea (15.0% for all grades, 13.6% with grade 3/4), fatigue (44.7% for all grades, 13.6% with grade 3/4), nausea (12.3% for all grades, 6.8% with grade 3/4), and peripheral neuropathy (17.6% for all

Malignant tumours of the kidneys are relatively rare tumours that occur in adults, although there has been a constant increase in the incidence of this cancer type in recent years. It occupies the 10th place in terms of the number of new cases of cancer in men and 14th place in women.Considerable progress in the treatment of renal cell carcinoma over the last years has forced researchers to look for new factors of potential prognostic or predictive value in this tumour type in order to clarify the selection of patients for optimal treatment. The drugs from the group of tyrosine kinase inhibitors have played a decisive role. So far, the Motzer model, grouping the prognostic factors, has been most commonly used in clinical practice.Based on the current research looking for new markers of prognostic or predictive value, these factors can be divided into cellular hypoxia-induced proteins and proteins regulating the cell cycle and the apoptosis process. In the second part of this study, hypoxia-inducible factors will be discussed.