Increased Serum Leptin Levels and Over Expression of Leptin Receptors are Associated With the Invasion and Progression of Renal Cell Carcinoma

Horiguchi, Akio; Sumitomo, Makoto; Asakuma, Junichi; Asano, Takako; Zheng, Rong; Asano, Tomohiko; Nanus, David M.; Hayakawa, Masamichi

doi:10.1016/j.juro.2006.06.039

« Previous Next »The Journal of Urology
Volume 176, Issue 4 , Pages 1631-1635, October 2006

Increased Serum Leptin Levels and Over Expression of Leptin Receptors are Associated With the Invasion and Progression of Renal Cell Carcinoma

Akio Horiguchi
- Department of Urology, National Defense Medical College, Tokorozawa-City, Saitama, Japan
- Urological Oncology Research Laboratory, Department of Urology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, New York
- Correspondence and requests for reprints: Urological Oncology Research Laboratory, Department of Urology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, 525 East 68th St., E-300, New York, New York 10021 (telephone: 1-212-746-5495; FAX: 1-212-746-8941)
Makoto Sumitomo
- Department of Urology, National Defense Medical College, Tokorozawa-City, Saitama, Japan
Junichi Asakuma
- Department of Urology, National Defense Medical College, Tokorozawa-City, Saitama, Japan
Takako Asano
- Department of Urology, National Defense Medical College, Tokorozawa-City, Saitama, Japan
Rong Zheng
- Urological Oncology Research Laboratory, Department of Urology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, New York
Tomohiko Asano
- Department of Urology, National Defense Medical College, Tokorozawa-City, Saitama, Japan
David M. Nanus
- Urological Oncology Research Laboratory, Department of Urology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, New York
- Financial interest and/or other relationship with Amgen.
Masamichi Hayakawa
- Department of Urology, National Defense Medical College, Tokorozawa-City, Saitama, Japan

Received 10 October 2005

Purpose

Leptin, an adipocyte derived cytokine that is closely associated with obesity, was recently shown to be involved in carcinogenesis and cancer progression. Because obesity is a significant risk factor for renal cell carcinoma, we investigated the link between leptin and the development of renal cell carcinoma.

Materials and Methods

Associations between preoperative serum leptin levels and leptin receptor expression in tumor specimens and various clinicopathological parameters were analyzed in 57 patients with renal cell carcinoma.

Results

Serum leptin levels were 1.2 to 16.2 ng/ml (mean 4.5). Of 57 tumors 22 (38.6%) demonstrated high leptin receptor expression. Serum leptin levels were significantly higher in patients with vs without tumor specimen venous invasion (p = 0.030) and higher in patients with high vs low leptin receptor expression (p = 0.019). There were significant associations between high leptin receptor expression and the presence of venous invasion (p = 0.013), histological type (p = 0.0076) and regional lymph node metastasis (p = 0.047). Of 42 patients with N0M0 disease those with serum leptin 5.0 ng/ml or more had significantly shorter progression-free survival than patients with lower levels (p = 0.0043). Multivariate Cox proportional hazards model analysis demonstrated that higher serum leptin was an independent predictor of progression-free survival (p = 0.0406).