Vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 predicts cancer-free survival in clear cell renal carcinoma patients.
OBJECTIVE
Vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM1) is a cell surface glycoprotein implicated in various pathophysiologic conditions. We measured VCAM1 expression levels in tumor tissues and evaluated its significance and prognostic use in renal cell carcinoma (RCC).


METHODS
We used real-time quantitative PCR to examine the VCAM1 expression levels of a total of 485 sporadic renal tumors, including 429 clear cell, 21 papillary, 17 chromophobe, 11 oncocytomas, and 7 collecting duct carcinomas. We retrospectively examined the relationship of this expression to various clinicopathologic variables and the von Hippel-Lindau alteration status. We evaluated its significance with respect to patient survival rates using the Cox regression model combined with the split-sample method.


RESULTS
Compared with normal kidney samples (n = 43), VCAM1 was significantly up-regulated in clear cell RCC and papillary RCC, whereas it was down-regulated in chromophobe RCC and oncocytoma. In clear cell RCC, VCAM1 expression levels were apparently high in patients asymptomatic at presentation and in patients with small tumor size, low-stage, low-grade, microvascular invasion-negative, and von Hippel-Lindau alteration-positive tumors. Univariate analyses showed that VCAM1 high expression is strongly associated with better outcomes in clear cell and papillary RCCs. Further, Cox multivariate analysis models combined with the split-sample method revealed that this association is significant only in cancer-free survival for patients with clear cell RCC after curative surgical resection.


CONCLUSIONS
VCAM1 expression levels were found to be histologically subtype specific in renal tumors. Determination of the VCAM1 expression level as a biomarker can provide useful prognostic information for patients with clear cell RCC.
Shioi
Ko-ichi
K
Department of Urology and Molecular Genetics, Yokohama City University Graduate School of Medicine, Yokohama, Japan.
Komiya
Atsushi
A
Hattori
Keiko
K
Huang
Ying
Y
Sano
Futoshi
F
Murakami
Takayuki
T
Nakaigawa
Noboru
N
Kishida
Takeshi
T
Kubota
Yoshinobu
Y
Nagashima
Yoji
Y
Yao
Masahiro
M
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary / Q000378:metabolism / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D002292:Carcinoma, Renal Cell / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D006801:Humans; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009154:Mutation; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis / Q000473:pathology; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D019010:Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology*; D051794:Von Hippel-Lindau Tumor Suppressor Protein / Q000235:genetics
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D019010:Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1; D051794:Von Hippel-Lindau Tumor Suppressor Protein