Thymidine phosphorylase levels as a prognostic factor in renal cell carcinoma

To investigate the relationship between thymidine phosphorylase (TP), a vascular growth factor, and established prognostic factors for renal cell carcinoma (RCC), e.g. histological grade or Tumour-Node-Metastasis (TNM) classification.

TP levels were measured in RCC tissue (tumour TP) and in adjacent non-neoplastic kidney tissue (normal tissue TP), using a sandwich-type enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The 59 patients, diagnosed with organ-confined RCC before surgery and who had undergone radical nephrectomy, were divided into two groups according to their prognosis after surgery. Group 1 (nine patients) had a poor prognosis and group 2 (50) had no evidence of disease within a 65-month follow-up. The relationships among TP level, TNM classification, histological subtypes, V factor and prognosis, and of tumour TP to normal tissue TP levels were investigated. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the importance of factors associated with increased TP levels.

Normal tissue TP levels correlated with histological grade (r = 0.31, P < 0.01); in patients with venous invasion or with a poor prognosis, the levels were significantly higher than in those without (P < 0.05 and < 0.001, respectively). The normal tissue TP levels were also significantly higher in the non-clear cell than in the clear cell subtype. Multiple regression analysis showed that the independent factor associated with elevated normal tissue TP levels was histological grade (R2 = 0.189, P < 0.01). There was no correlation between tumour TP and other factors.

Normal tissue TP levels in localized hypervascular RCC were associated with histological grade. These data suggest that normal tissue TP levels could be a prognostic factor.