Predictive role of vascular endothelial growth factor polymorphisms in the survival of renal cell carcinoma patients.

We conducted a study to investigate the possible role of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) polymorphisms -2578C/A, -1154G/A and -634C/G and clinical factors in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) prognosis in a cohort of 336 RCC cases. A total of 336 patients with RCC were recruited from PLA General Hospital between January 2004 and December 2005. All patients were followed up until December 2010, and no patient was lost to follow-up. The follow-up time of this study was 60 months. At the time of analysis, a total of 210 died during the follow-up. The median overall survival for patients was 29.1 months (95%CI = 17.1 to 41.3 months), and the 5-year survival rate for the patients was 37.5%. Our study showed that Karnofsky performance status ≥60 could delay death from RCC, with HR (95%CI) of 0.57 (0.39-0.84). Patients with anemia, platelet count >400 x 10(9)/L, neutrophilia and lymphocytes >160 g/L had increased risk of death from RCC, with HR (95%CI) of 1.84 (1.18-2.96), 2.01 (1.27-3.25), 1.65 (1.03-2.56) and 1.49 (0.99-2.71), respectively. The VEGF -2578AA and -1154AA genotypes were significantly associated with a poor overall survival of RCC patients, with HR (95%CI) of 2.41 (1.32-5.13) and 3.77 (1.42-15.67), respectively. In conclusion, our study presented the factors regarding the prognosis of RCC patients, and high platelet and neutrophil counts, low lymphocytes, and VEGF -2578C/A and -1154G/A polymorphisms were shown to be independent factors for a lower prognosis of RCC patients.