Background. Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is a urologic malignancy with a steady rise in incidence and high mortality rate. Between 60 to 70% of patients with renal cell carcinoma can only be cured with surgery but despite advances in early diagnostis, in around 20-30% of cases there is metastasis. For these patients, chemotherapy and radiotherapy are ineffective and hence the prognosis is poor. Retinoids are biologically active compounds of either natural or synthetic origin that are involved in complex physiological and developmental processes in many tissues including cell proliferation and activation of tumour suppression genes. This article reviews the role of retinoids and their cognate nuclear retinoid/rexinoid receptors in relation to renal cell carcinoma. Methods. A literature search using ScienceDirect and Medline with a focus on the relationship between renal cell carcinoma and nuclear retinoid/rexinoid receptors. Results. Use of retinoids/rexinoids in the treatment of locally advanced and metastatic RCC significantly prolongs median time of tumour progression and overall survival of patients. Combination therapy with other preparations has greater efficacy than treatment with retinoids alone. Patient survival can be predicted on the basis of the expression of different all-trans retinoic acid receptor (RAR) and 9-cis retinoic acid receptor (RXR) subtypes. Conclusions. Since nuclear retinoid receptors play a crucial role as ligand-activated, DNA binding, trans-acting, transcription-modulating proteins involved in a general molecular mechanism responsible for transcriptional responses in target genes, retinoids might be an alternative approach for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma.

Breast cancer is the most occurring type of cancer among women. In Slovakia, there are yearly diagnosed about 1900 new cases of this disease. Breast cancer treatment is very expensive, psychic stressful and in some cases ineffective. Therefore, it is essential to search for new and/or alternative methods for breast cancer treatment, since nuclear receptors are considered to be a central goal for maximizing treatment opportunities in breast cancer. Among natural ligands for estrogen receptors (ERα and ERβ), which are member of nuclear receptors superfamily, belongs also isoflavones. These natural compounds have similar structure to main female hormon-17β estradiol. A rich source of isoflavones is soy and its products. Three aglycones form of isoflavones (genistein, daidzein, glycitein) are predominantly found in soybean and red clover. Among other important isoflavones belongs also biochanin A and formononetin.

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