Survival in Patients with Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma is Predicted by HIF-1α Expression

Abstract. Aim: Τo investigate hypoxia inducible factor-1α’s(HIF-1α) immunohistochemical expression in clear cell renalcell carcinoma (ccRCC) treated with radical nephrectomy.Patients and Methods: One hundred and forty-eight patientswere considered from those who underwent radicalnephrectomy between 1983 and 1993. Archived materialswere retrieved from the Institute of Pathological Anatomy forimmunostaining. The features considered on the histologicalspecimens were tumor stage, grade, as well as cellular andvascular HIF-1α expression. All considered parameters werecorrelated with time to recurrence (TTR) and overall survival(OS). Results: TTR was significantly longer in patients withlow cellular HIF-1α expression; patients’ survival washigher in those with low HIF-1α expression. Regardingvascular HIF-1α expression, the differences were notstatistically significant when considering TTR and OS. Onunivariate analysis, age, clinical stage and HIF-1α cellularexpression showed a significant association with OS.Conclusion: Cellular HIF-1α is an important indicator ofprognosis in patients with ccRCC; high HIF-1α expressionpredicts poor survival.