Interleukin-11 receptor predicts post-operative clinical outcome in patients with early-stage clear-cell renal cell carcinoma

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prognostic value of interleukin-11 receptor α chain in patients with early-stage clear-cell renal cell carcinoma. Interleukin-11 receptor α chain, a member of the gp130-dependent receptors, exerts pleiotropic oncogenic activities by promoting proliferation, angiogenesis and metastasis in many cancers.

METHODS: We retrospectively enrolled 293 patients (130 in the training cohort and 163 in the validation cohort) with early-stage (TNM Stage I + II) clear-cell renal cell carcinoma undergoing nephrectomy at a single institution. Clinicopathologic features, recurrence-free survival and overall survival were recorded. Interleukin-11 receptor α chain intensities were assessed by immunohistochemistry in tumor tissues. Kaplan-Meier method was applied to compare survival curves between groups. Cox regression models were used to analyze the impact of prognostic factors on recurrence-free survival and overall survival. The concordance index was calculated to assess predictive accuracy.

RESULTS: In both training and validation cohorts, high interleukin-11 receptor α chain expression was associated with early recurrence (P = 0.004 and P = 0.015, respectively) and poor survival (P < 0.001 and P = 0.019, respectively) of patients with early-stage clear-cell renal cell carcinoma. Multivariate analyses confirmed that interleukin-11 receptor α chain expression was an independent prognostic factor for recurrence-free survival (P = 0.004) and overall survival (P = 0.001). The predictive accuracy of the Leibovich prognostic score was improved when interleukin-11 receptor α chain expression was incorporated. Notably, the improvement in prediction mainly took place in patients with low-risk disease defined by the Leibovich score.

CONCLUSION: High Interleukin-11 receptor α chain expression is an independent predictor of poor clinical outcome in patients with early-stage clear-cell renal cell carcinoma, and the prognostic value is more prominent in those with low-risk disease.