Correlation of Clinical Stage and Presumptive Prognostic Factors in Renal Cell Carcinoma

ABSTRACT

Renal cell carcinoma is the most common primary cancer of the kidney. The tumor stage is a reliable prognostic marker in renal cell carcinoma which is significantly associated with patient survival. But assessment of other prognostic factors has produced varying and often conflicting results. We reevaluated the significance of varied prognostic parameters in 33 cases of renal cell carcinoma; clinical stage, cell type, histologic pattern, DNA ploidy, Ki-67 labeling index, and bcl-2 oncoprotein expression. We could not statistically prove that DNA ploidy and bcl-2 expression were related to any examined parameters. Cell type was not related to clinical stage nor nuclear grade but there was a significant correlation (p=0.002) between cell type and histologic pattern. Nuclear grade (p=0.007) and Ki-67 labeling index (p=0.036) were significantly related to clinical stage, suggesting their value as complementary prognostic markers for renal cell carcinoma.