Paraneoplastic symptoms: Cachexia, polycythemia,, and hypercalcemia are, respectively, related to vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in renal clear cell carcinoma

Objectives: To evaluate whether there is a relation between expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and any of the paraneoplastic syndromes (PNS) in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) patients. Materials and methods: A total of 667 patients with ccRCC and at least one PNS were included. Thorough history taking, physical examinations, and laboratory tests were used to diagnose PNS. Immunohistochemistry was performed for VEGF evaluation. Results: There were 10 different PNS identified in the population. Sixty patients had a single paraneoplastic presentation. In all patients, presence of cachexia (n = 267, P < 0.0001), polycythemia (n = 40, P = 0.0014), and hypercalcemia (n = 48, P = 0.0006) was correlated to VEGF expression. Correlation was neither acquired in Stauffer's syndrome, pyrexia, elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), anemia, thrombocytosis, hypertension, neuromyopathy nor obtained within patients with single PNS. Conclusions: Relations between PNS and VEGF expression in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) has not been studied yet. The results we gained hereby can help us further understand the mechanistic of PNS in RCC. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.