Major histocompatibility complex I upregulation in clear cell renal cell carcinoma is associated with increased survival

Objective: To examine the prognostic value of tumor major histocompatibility complex I (MHCI) expression on survival and recurrence in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Methods: Fifty-three patients that underwent nephrectomy at our institution for clear cell RCC (T1-T3) with ≥4 years of follow-up were queried from our nephrectomy database. Immunohistochemical staining for MHCI was performed on tumor specimens and MHCI expression was quantified with an automated image analysis technique. Patients were divided into high and low MHCI expression groups in order to study the relationship between MHCI expression and prognosis using the Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test.

Results: Overall survival and recurrence free survival were increased in the high MHCI expression group compared to the low MHCI expression group (log-rank, p = 0.036 and p = 0.028, respectively). Patients alive at the end of the study had higher MHCI expression (mean positivity score 0.82) than those that died of disease (mean positivity score 0.76, t test, p = 0.030). Patients that did not develop recurrence during the study period had higher MHCI expression (mean positivity score 0.83) than those that did develop recurrence (mean positivity score 0.78), but this difference was not significant (t test, p = 0.079).

Conclusion: Our data demonstrate that high MHCI expression confers improved overall and recurrence free survival in patients with clear cell RCC and could serve as an important prognostic tool in identifying high-risk patients.