Correction to: Development and validation of a vascularity-based architectural classification for clear cell renal cell carcinoma: correlation with conventional pathological prognostic factors, gene expression patterns, and clinical outcomes

519 Background: Presence of sarcomatoid features in Renal Cell Carcinoma (sRCC) tumors signals aggressive clinical behavior and poor prognosis compared to Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma (ccRCC). However, the underlying gene expression patterns of sRCC are poorly understood. We sought to categorize ccRCC and sRCC gene expression subtypes and compare survival outcomes, as well as evaluate whether sRCC gene expression patterns are similar to non-renal sarcomas. Methods: We identified 511 ccRCC cases, of which 36 had a sarcomatoid component from The Cancer Genome Atlas. Enrichment analysis was used to measure associations between gene expression signatures for soft tissue sarcomas and expression profiles of sRCC and ccRCC cases measured by RNA-Seq. The resulting scores were used to identify distinct patient groups using K-means clustering. Overall survival (OS) was evaluated by Kaplan-Meier, log rank, and Cox regression methods. Results: Our analysis identified 4 distinct clusters that differ in enrichment for soft-tissue sarcoma gene expression profiles. The clusters showed significantly different OS distributions (p-value<0.001 log rank). Most sRCC cases (69%) segregated into a single cluster with the worst prognosis. Among ccRCC cases, 57% of patients with higher levels of sarcoma signature enrichment were associated with a shorter OS, which is independent of tumor stage. 5-year/median OS survival estimates for ccRCC cases in the 4 clusters, by increasing levels of sarcoma profile enrichment, were 83%/NR, 75%/NR, 67%/90.9 mo, and 49%/56.7 mo. We also validated existence of these clusters in another sRCC cohort (Sircar 2015). Conclusions: We identified strong associations between sarcoma expression signatures and gene expression profiles of sRCC. We also found that 57% of morphologically non-sRCC cases demonstrate enrichment for sarcoma expression signatures, and these patients have worse OS than their non-sarcoma enriched ccRCC counterparts. The presence of sarcoma expression signatures has not been previously evaluated in RCC. These signatures portend poor survival and may be clinically actionable, as they describe unique subtypes of RCC that may not correspond to histologic characterization.

Download Full-text

The SLC Family Are Candidate Diagnostic and Prognostic Biomarkers in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

BioMed Research International ◽

10.1155/2020/1932948 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2020 ◽

pp. 1-17 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Weiting Kang ◽

Meng Zhang ◽

Qiang Wang ◽

Da Gu ◽

Zhilong Huang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gene Expression ◽

Renal Cell Carcinoma ◽

Cell Carcinoma ◽

Renal Cell ◽

Clear Cell ◽

Clinical Stage ◽

Expression Patterns ◽

Cancer Genome ◽

Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma ◽

Expression Levels

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is the most common lethal subtype of renal cancer, and changes in tumor metabolism play a key role in its development. Solute carriers (SLCs) are important in the transport of small molecules in humans, and defects in SLC transporters can lead to serious diseases. The expression patterns and prognostic values of SLC family transporters in the development of ccRCC are still unclear. The current study analyzed the expression levels of SLC family members and their correlation with prognosis in ccRCC patients with data from Oncomine, Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA), The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), cBioPortal, the Human Protein Atlas (HPA), the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC), and the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). We found that the mRNA expression levels of SLC22A6, SLC22A7, SLC22A13, SLC25A4, SLC34A1, and SLC44A4 were significantly lower in ccRCC tissues than in normal tissues and the protein expression levels of SLC22A6, SLC22A7, SLC22A13, and SLC34A1 were also significantly lower. Except for SLC22A7, the expression levels of SLC22A6, SLC22A13, SLC25A4, SLC34A1, and SLC44A4 were correlated with the clinical stage of ccRCC patients. The lower the expression levels of SLC22A6, SLC22A13, SLC25A4, SLC34A1, and SLC44A4 were, the later the clinical stage of ccRCC patients was. Further experiments revealed that the expression levels of SLC22A6, SLC22A7, SLC22A13, SLC25A4, SLC34A1, and SLC44A4 were significantly associated with overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in ccRCC patients. High SLC22A6, SLC22A7, SLC22A13, SLC25A4, SLC34A1, and SLC44A4 expression predicted improved OS and DFS. Finally, GSE53757 and ICGC were used to revalidate the differential expression and clinical prognostic value. This study suggests that SLC22A6, SLC22A7, SLC22A13, SLC25A4, SLC34A1, and SLC44A4 may be potential targets for the clinical diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of ccRCC patients.

Download Full-text