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Telomere Length in Peripheral Blood Predicts Survival in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

Departments of ¹ Medical Biosciences, Pathology and ² Surgical and Perioperative Sciences, Urology and Andrology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

Requests for reprints: Göran Roos, Department of Medical Biosciences, Umeå University, S-90187, Umeå, Sweden. Phone: 46-90785-1801; Fax: 46-90785-2889; E-mail: goran.roos{at}medbio.umu.se.

Key Words: Renal cell carcinoma • telomere length • peripheral blood • prognosis

Telomeres are repetitive structures located at chromosome ends. Previous studies have indicated that blood cell telomeres may serve as a biomarker for cancer risk. In addition, we recently reported that blood telomere length predicted survival in patients with breast cancer. In the present study, we examined whether blood telomere length may act as a predictor for survival in newly diagnosed patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma. Furthermore, we analyzed telomere length in tumor samples and corresponding kidney cortex. Relative telomere length (RTL) was measured on extracted DNA using real-time PCR. Interestingly, and in line with our previous findings in breast cancer, patients with the longest blood telomeres (fourth quartile) had a significantly worse prognosis compared with patients with shorter blood RTL (P = 0.005). A highly significant association was found between long blood telomeres and a poor outcome in patients with nonmetastatic disease (P < 0.001), whereas patients with distant metastases had a poor survival regardless of blood RTL (P = 0.432). No correlations were found between blood RTL and various clinical variables, such as erythrocyte sedimentation rate, hemoglobin, and thrombocyte count. Multivariate Cox regression analysis verified long blood RTL as an independent negative prognostic marker. In contrast, telomere length in kidney cortex and tumor tissue did not predict survival. In conclusion, our results indicate that blood RTL may predict kidney cancer survival, with implications for future treatment strategies. [Cancer Res 2009;69(7):2896–901]