The role of vimentin expression in predicting the long-term outcome of patients with localized renal cell carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the prognostic significance of vimentin intermediary filament expression by tumour cells in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) localized to the kidney.


METHODS
Thirty-nine patients with localized RCC (pT1,pT2) were assessed in a retrospective study. Tumour cells were evaluated immunohistochemically for vimentin, epithelial membrane antigen (EMA) and polyclonal cytokeratin expression. The prognosis of cases expressing positive vimentin expression in tumour cells was compared with that of cases with no expression. Additional clinical information and conventional histological grade of the tumours were also included in the survival analysis.


RESULTS
Univariate analysis of patient survival and tumour recurrence showed a statistically significant association between vimentin-positive tumours and poor patient outcome; the EMA stain showed borderline significance and histological grade was significantly associated with prognosis. The combination of tumour vimentin expression and histological grade provided a better predictor of prognosis and proved to be the best independent prognosticator of survival by multivariate analysis.


CONCLUSIONS
Vimentin expression by tumour cells provides important prognostic information for patients with localized RCC; the combination of vimentin expression and histological grade is a better predictor for survival than grade or vimentin expression alone.
Sabo
E
E
Department of Pathology, Bnai Zion Medical Center, Haifa, Israel.
Miselevich
I
I
Bejar
J
J
Segenreich
M
M
Wald
M
M
Moskovitz
B
B
Nativ
O
O
D002292:Carcinoma, Renal Cell / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D011182:Postoperative Care; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013194:Staining and Labeling; D016019:Survival Analysis; D015996:Survival Rate; D014746:Vimentin / Q000378:metabolism*
D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D014746:Vimentin