Expression of secretagogin in clear-cell renal cell carcinomas is associated with a high metastasis rate

Renal cell carcinomas are divided into several subgroups according to their histopathologic characteristics. The outcome, therapy responses, and the applicability of molecular-targeted therapies depend on the tumor classification and on the tumor stage. Recent advances within the biomarker research facilitated the exact classification of the molecular character of the renal tumor. For example, the calcium-binding proteins parvalbumin and S-100A1 are characteristically expressed in renal cell carcinoma subgroups. This led us to investigate the expression of the novel calcium-binding protein secretagogin in renal cell carcinomas. Tissue microarray cylinders including 94 clear-cell renal cell carcinomas, 61 non-clear-cell renal cell carcinomas (37 papillary renal cell and 24 chromophobe carcinomas), and 30 oncocytomas were analyzed by immunohistochemistry. This showed remarkable secretagogin expression in 37% of the clear-cell renal cell carcinomas. Non-clear-cell renal cell carcinomas and oncocytomas were completely negative. Consequently performed immunoblotting analyses confirmed this expression profile. Because publicly available data direct toward a formation of a hierarchical cluster of secretagogin overexpressing clear-cell renal cell carcinomas, we conducted a clinical follow-up of the patients with clear-cell renal cell carcinoma. This revealed significantly more metastasis within the secretagogin-positive clear-cell renal cell carcinoma subgroup (49% versus 28%; P < .05). In conclusion, we report on detection of the novel calcium-binding protein secretagogin within a subgroup of clear-cell renal cell carcinomas. The increased metastasis rates within the secretagogin-positive subgroup of clear-cell renal cell carcinomas direct toward a clinical impact of our findings.