RESUMO
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To assess serum levels of endogenous endostatin in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma (CCRCC) and to determine the relationship of these levels to tumor stage, grade.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>From March 2004 to October 2008, preoperative serum were obtained from 138 consecutive patients with CCRCC (73 patients in T1, 39 patients in T2, 20 patients in T3, and 6 patients in T4) and 40 healthy controls. Serum levels of endostatin were measured by sandwich-ELISA. Associations between circulating endostatin levels and clinicopathologic factors and clinical outcome were determined.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Endostatin levels did not differ significantly between the patients with CCRCC (93.1 microg/L) and healthy controls (78.9 microg/L, P > 0.05). Serum levels of endostatin were significantly higher in the T2-4 CCRCC patients (107.2 microg/L) than those of the T1 patients (80.4 microg/L, P < 0.01). No significant difference was found in the endostatin levels among the T2-4 patients, or between healthy controls and the T1 patients. The serum endostatin concentration was significantly higher in the metastasis group (118.4 microg/L) than in the no metastasis group (89.5 microg/L, P < 0.05), but there was no significant difference between patients with distant metastasis group (122.0 microg/L) and lymph nodes metastasis (110.0 microg/L, P > 0.05). Patients with G3-4 tumors had significantly higher endostatin levels (111.8 microg/L) than those of patients with G1 (80.4 microg/L) and G2 tumors (86.2 microg/L, P < 0.01), but endostatin levels did not differ significantly between the two groups (P > 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Preoperative serum levels of endostatin elevated in patients with CCRCC and associated with higher stage and grade.</p>