OVEREXPRESSION OF KIF11 IS A POOR PROGNOSTIC FACTOR IN CLEAR CELL RENAL CELL CARCINOMA

Unresectable renal cell carcinoma continues to be a great challenge due to our limit ed understanding of its underlying pathophysiology. We explored the relation-ship between KIF11 protein expression and the clinical courses of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) using a tissue microarray.Material and methods: The tissue microarray contained specimens derived from 90 patients, cancer and matched adjacent non-cancerous tissue (2 cores per case), followed up for 7 years. Tumour samples were evaluated for KIF11 expression using the H-score, and their correlations with clinicopathological data and survival data were analysed.72.7% of ccRCC tissues presented KIF11 cytoplasmic expression with a median value of 20 (interquartile range 0-200). The nuclear staining was positive in 36.36% of ccRCC tissues. Among controls, nuclear KIF11 expression was ab-sent, but cytoplasmic expression was identified in all cases, with a median value of 230 (interquartile range 45-290). Cytoplasmic KIF11 expression in ccRCC tis-sues was lower than in the control tissues and was positively correlated with tu-mour grade and mortality (p < 0.05). KIF11 nuclear expression did not correlate with overall survival.Elevated expression of KIF11 predicts poor clinical outcome in ccRCC patients. Downregulation of KIF11 may provide a new therapeutic strategy for ccRCC.