Expression and clinical significance of c-kit and PCNA in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) subtypes / 中华泌尿外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the expression of c-kit and analyze its relationship with proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) in RCC subtypes and its clinical progression. Methods Expression of c-kit protein was retrospectively studied with immunohistochemistry in paraffin sections from 137 cases of clear renal cell carcinoma (CCRCC), 82 papillary renal cell carcinoma (PRCC), 51 chromophobe renal cell carcinoma (ChRCC). Results The positive rate of c-kit in ChRCC was 94.1%(48/51), it was statistically higher than that in CCRCC (16. 1%, 22/137) and PRCC (28.1 %, 23/82)(P=0. 001 ). In ChRCC, the positive expression of c-kit was related with TNM stages. The positive expression of PCNA was related with the grade in CCRCC and PRCC. But there was no relationship between PCNA expression and grade of ChRCC. It also had the relationship with the metastasis in CCRCC. Conclusions The expression of c-kit in ChRCC is higher than in other subtype of RCC, and associated with tumor local progression. That makes c-kit as a helpful marker to discriminate different subtypes of kidney cancer.