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Compared to the 19-year period subsequent to the Chernobyl accident, the morbidity of malignant renal tumors in the Ukraine has increased from 4.7 to 9.0 per 100,000 of the total population. Cesium 137 ( 137 Cs), which accounts for 90% of the internal radioactivity in the Ukrainian population exposed to long-term low-dose radiation and 90% of the more labile pool of 137 Cs, is excreted via the kidneys. Our present study aimed to evaluate the status of pro- and anti-apoptotic regulatory molecules in conventional renal cell carcinomas (cRCCs) in Ukrainian patients. To achieve this objective, Bcl-2, Bcl-x, BAX, death receptor (DR5) and transcriptional nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB, with p50 and p65 subunits) were immunohistochemically investigated using a tissue microarray technique in cRCCs from a group of 56 Ukrainian patients, comprising 18 patients living in non-contaminated areas and 41 patients from 137 Cs-contaminated areas. As a comparison, 19 Spanish patients with analogous tumors were also investigated. It was shown that BAX and DR5-positive cRCCs tended to increase among the Ukrainian patients living in the radio-contaminated areas, along with the suppression of anti-apoptotic molecules (Bcl-2 and Bcl-x) and with p65 and p50 overexpression in the same tumors. This study suggested that chronic long-term, low-dose radiation exposure might result in the alteration of the apoptotic regulatory mechanisms, which, in turn, could lead to enhanced tumor progression and resistance to apoptosis., (Copyright© 2006 International Institute of Anticaner Research (Dr. John G. Delinassios), All rights reserved.)

Unlabelled: A retrospective study was performed to determine the prognostic value of Basement Membrane (BM) integrity, Matrix Metalloproteinases (MMPs) and E-Cadherin expression in renal cell carcinoma (RCC)., Materials and Methods: An immunohistochemical study on laminin and collagen IV, MMPs 1 and 2, and E-Cadherin was carried out on 71 RCCs. BM fragmentation was considered taking 75% as a cut-off. MMP 1 and MMP2 immunostaining, as well as E-Cadherin was considered taking 25% as a cut-off., Results: An inverse relationship was seen between E-Cadherin with laminin, collagen IV and MMPs. More than 75% loss of laminin, collagen IV and E-Cadherin, as well as higher expression of MMPs, were associated with symptoms, tumoral size and worse grade. Loss of collagen IV and E-Cadherin were of prognostic value., Conclusion: Both BM and E-Cadherin are good prognostic markers. MMPs patterns show a relationship between BM proteins and E-Cadherin, but evaluation is more time-consuming and provide no better prognostication; consequently they are not useful in routine clinical applications.

Background: A retrospective study was performed on patients with renal cell carcinoma to determine whether tumoral proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) is a predictive factor., Methods: We studied immunohisto-chemical PCNA expression with pc10 monoclonal antibody in 109 renal tumor paraffin sections. These tumors were previously classified according to cellular type by Thoenes, Furman's grading and Robson's staging, Moreover, we counted the number of mitoses in 10 high power fields (HPF) and also evaluated the tumoral necrosis percentage. Ten year survival curve of Kaplan and Meier was obtained for 90 patients., Results: Nuclear immunostaining for PCNA showed a statistical correlation with Robson's stage, cellular type and nuclear grade. Moreover, the number of positive nuclei was higher in tumors presenting an elevated mitosis count and higher in degree of necrosis. Survival was significantly poorer in patients whose PCNA index was greater than 5%. Nuclear PCNA immunostaining was shown to be an independent prognostic factor in patients with Robson stage I and also in those who had high cytological grading., Conclusions: These results show PCNA to be a prognostic marker for RCC.