Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 11, 2026
The Use of Reverse Phase Protein Arrays (RPPA) to Explore Protein Expression Variation within Individual Renal Cell Cancers
Published on: January 22, 2013
Heterogeneous p27(Kip1) expression within primary renal cell cancers, their invasive margins and peritumoral renal
A S Merseburger1, J Serth, E von der Heyde
1Department of Urology, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Germany.
Introduction:
The expression of the negative cell cycle regulator p27(Kip1) is frequently found to be deregulated in various human cancer types. Whether expression of p27(Kip1) can be used as prognostically relevant biological variables for renal cell cancer patients still remains to be clarified. Therefore, in the present investigation the expression within different tissue areas obtained from renal cell carcinomas was determined.
Patients And Methods:
For analysis of p27(Kip1) in 420 tumor nephrectomy specimens obtained from 420 consecutively included patients, tissue microarrays were used comprising of 1,260 tissue samples each obtained from the tumor itself, the invasive front as well as non-malignant surrounding parenchyma. A sufficient follow-up after surgical therapy was available in 251 cases.
Results:
In univariate survival analysis, decreased expression of p27(Kip1) within tissue cores obtained from the invasion front was significantly correlated with the patients' disease-specific long-term survival (p = 0.02, log-rank test). In contrast, expression of p27(Kip1) protein within the primary tumors was not identified to reveal any prognostically important information. In Cox regression analysis, histological stage and grade (p < 0.01), the presence of regional lymph node (p < 0.01) or distant metastases at the time of surgery (p < 0.01) as well as decreased expression of p27(Kip1) (p = 0.04) within the invasion front tissue samples independently predicted the disease-specific long-term survival following surgery.
Conclusion:
Our analysis demonstrated that p27(Kip1) is heterogeneously expressed in renal cell carcinomas. Moreover, the result of the present study supports the prognostic value of p27(Kip1) protein expression for patients diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma.
