Prognostic significance of p27(Kip 1) expression in renal cell carcinoma.

The importance of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor genes (CDKIG) in benign and malignant urological diseases is a subject of intense ongoing investigation. The goal of the current study was to analyze the expression of p27(Kip 1) CDKIG in benign and malignant renal cells and assess their possible association with different clinical parameters. Expression of p27(Kip 1) CDKIG was evaluated and compared in 24 normal human kidneys and in 46 renal cell carcinoma (RCC) samples. Intensity of the gene expression was compared between the groups and possible association was analyzed with the cancer clinical parameters. The gene was significantly higher expressed in normal than in RCC tissue samples (p=0.0045). Intensity of the marker expression in RCC was negatively correlated with tumor size (Rho=-0.438, p=0.0051) and associated with stage and grade (p=0.0488 and <0.0001, respectively). The patients with symptomatic disease had significantly less marker expression than incidentally discovered tumors (p=0.0301). The marker expression was significantly higher in oncocytomas as compared with conventional RCCs (p=0.0378) The baseline p27(Kip 1) expression level in these patients was significantly lower than in non-recurrent tumors (p=0.04). Disease-related related death was observed in 4 cases. The baseline p27(Kip 1) expression level in these patients was significantly lower than in alive patients (p=0.0106). The Log-Rank analysis showed that loss of p27(Kip 1) expression were the risk-factors of oncological patient death (p=0.005). Expression of p27 is significantly decreased in RCC as compared with normal kidney tissue. Intensity of the gene expression is associated with clinical parameters: tumour size, stage, grade and disease presentation. Loss of p27 expression is a risk-factor for disease progression.