Expression of chemokine receptor 4 was associated with poor survival in renal cell carcinoma

Chemokines and their receptors are known to play important roles in tumor growth and metastasis of many malignancies. Recently, CC chemokine receptor 4 (CCR4) has been described as a prognostic marker in various tumors. However, the possible role of CCR4 in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) has not been well elucidated. In this study, we detected the expression of CCR4 in 53 ccRCC by immunohistochemistry and correlated it with clinicopathological parameters and prognosis. Immunohistochemistry was used to determine the expression of CCR4 in 53 ccRCC and 11 renal contusion tissue specimens. CCR4 expression between carcinoma and normal renal tissues was evaluated by χ(2) test. Correlation between CCR4 and clinicopathological data was tested by χ(2) test. Univariate survival analysis was performed by the Kaplan-Meier method, and differences among the groups were analyzed by the log-rank test. CCR4 expression in ccRCC tissue was significantly higher compared with normal renal tissue samples (χ(2) = 4.392, P = 0.036). CCR4 was correlated with the clinicopathological features including tumor stage (P = 0.009), lymph node metastasis (P = 0.003) and distant metastasis (P = 0.031). Further, CCR4 was the only dependent affecting factor in lymph node metastasis (P = 0.014). Univariate analysis showed that tumor stage, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis and CCR4 were influential factors for poor prognosis in ccRCC patients; multivariate analysis revealed that CCR4 (P = 0.007) was the only independent risk factor for prognosis. In addition, Kaplan-Meier curve for overall survival (OS) indicated that prognosis was unfavorable for patients who had high CCR4 expression level (P = 0.010). CCR4 was correlated with tumor aggressive behavior in ccRCC. It might be involved in lymph node metastasis and have influence on patients' OS. Further research is needed to determine the potential of CCR4.