RASSF1A protein expression and correlation with clinicopathological parameters in renal cell carcinoma

• Published in: BMC urology Vol. 8; no. 1; p. 12
• Main Authors: Tezval, Hossein, Merseburger, Axel S, Matuschek, Ira, Machtens, Stefan, Kuczyk, Markus A, Serth, Jürgen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 26.09.2008; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Biomarkers, Tumor - analysis; Female; Humans; Kidney Neoplasms - diagnosis; Kidney Neoplasms - metabolism; Male; Middle Aged; Neoplasm Proteins - analysis; Reproducibility of Results; Sensitivity and Specificity; Statistics as Topic; Tumor Suppressor Proteins - analysis
• ISSN: 1471-2490; 1471-2490
• DOI: 10.1186/1471-2490-8-12

Epigenetic silencing of RAS association family 1A (RASSF1A) tumor suppressor gene occurs in various histological subtypes of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) but RASSF1A protein expression in clear cell RCC as well as a possible correlation with clinicopathological parameters of patients has not been analyzed at yet. 318 primary clear cell carcinomas were analyzed using tissue microarray analysis and immunohistochemistry. Survival analysis was carried out for 187 patients considering a follow-up period of 2-240 month. Expression of RASSF1A was found to be significantly decreased in tumoral cells when compared to normal tubular epithelial cells. RASSF1A immunopositivity was significantly associated with pT stage, group stage and histological grade of tumors and showed a tendency for impaired survival in Kaplan-Meier analysis. While most tumors demonstrate a loss of RASSF1A protein, a subset of tumors was identified to exhibit substantial RASSF1A protein expression and show increased tumor progression. Thus RCC tumorigenesis without depletion of RASSF1A may be associated with an adverse clinical outcome.