Abstract:
Objective To investigate the expression of C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 5 (CXCL5) in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and explore the association of CXCL5 with chinicopathological characteristics, as well as its predictive role in prognosis.
Methods We analyzed the relationship of CXCL5 expression with disease progression and prognosis based on the refining results from the CbioPortal database. Next, we collected clinical and pathological information from 105 patients with RCC in the Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital from November 2012 to June 2014. Of these, 62 cases expressing CXCL5 served as the experimental group, while samples from normal renal tissue and adjacent renal tissue (n=20 for each) were regarded as the control group. The expression of CXCL5 in these specimens was evaluated using immunohistochemistry and real-time RT-PCR. Patients were sub-grouped based on the expression level of CXCL5 (as low, intermediate, and high expression), and the association of CXCL5 expression with clinicopathological features was delineated. Moreover, Kaplan-Meier analysis was carried out to examine the relationship of CXCL5 expression with the survival rate.
Results The data from CbioPortal demonstrated that patients with a CXCL5 mutation had markedly reduced overall survival and disease-free survival (P < 0.05) as well as an increased risk of recurrence (P < 0.05). Additionally, mRNA expression of CXCL5 is associated with cancer metastasis, cancer stage, the number of positive lymph nodes, and the overall survival status of patients. Immunohistochemistry results showed that CXCL5 expression is significantly higher in RCC tissue than in normal renal tissue and adjacent renal tissue (P < 0.05). Sub-group analysis revealed that the expression level of CXCL5 was positively correlated with clinical staging and Fuhrman grading (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the 5-year survival rate was significantly lower in CXCL5 positive patients (65%) than that in CXCL5 negative patients (79%) (P < 0.05).
Conclusions CXCL5 is overexpressed in RCC and its expression level is positively associated with clinical staging and pathological grading. Moreover, overexpressed CXCL5 is correlated with poor prognosis. Thus, CXCL5 could serve as a promising predictive candidate and novel therapeutic target for RCC.