Expression of RARRES1 and AGBL2 and progression of conventional renal cell carcinoma

Background Approximately 15% of clinically localised conventional renal cell carcinoma (RCC) will develop metastasis within 5 years of follow-up. The aim of this study was to identify biomarkers predicting the postoperative tumour relapse. Methods Tissue microarrays of conventional RCC from a cohort of 691 patients without metastasis at the time of operation were analysed by immunohistochemistry for the expression of carboxypeptase inhibitor RARRES1 and its substrate carboxypeptidase AGBL2. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression models were addressed to postoperative tumour relapse and the metastasis-free survival time was estimated by Kaplan–Meier analysis. Results In multivariate analysis, the lack of staining or cytoplasmic staining of RARRES1 was a significant risk factor indicating five times higher risk of cancer relapse. Combining its co-expression with AGBL2, we found that RARRES1 cytoplasmic/negative and AGBL2-positive/negative staining is a significant risk factor for tumour progression indicating 11–15 times higher risk of cancer relapse, whereas the membranous RARRES1 expression, especially its co-expression with AGBL2, associated with excellent disease outcome. Conclusions RARRES1 and AGBL2 expression defines groups of patients at low and high risk of tumour progression and may direct an active surveillance to detect metastasis as early as possible and to apply adjuvant therapy.