TY - JOUR T1 - Expression of IGF-IEc Isoform in Renal Cell Carcinoma Tissues JF - Anticancer Research JO - Anticancer Res SP - 6213 LP - 6219 DO - 10.21873/anticanres.14641 VL - 40 IS - 11 AU - FANI MICHALOPOULOU AU - CONSTANTINA PETRAKI AU - ANASTASSIOS PHILIPPOU AU - ANTONIS ANALITIS AU - PAVLOS MSAOUEL AU - MICHAEL KOUTSILIERIS Y1 - 2020/11/01 UR - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/40/11/6213.abstract N2 - Background/Aim: Insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) regulates various aspects of cancer biology. There is a growing body of evidence regarding the potential distinct role of IGF-I isoforms, particularly of IGF-IEc, in the pathophysiology of various human cancer types, however, there are no studies which examined the expression of the different IGF-I isoforms in renal cell carcinoma (RCC). This study aimed to characterize the expression of IGF-IEc in human RCC tissues and investigated whether its expression is associated with the histopathological type of RCC as well as with the overall survival of patients. Materials and Methods: Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded renal tissue samples from 94 patients (58 males and 36 females) were assessed for IGF-IEc expression by immunohistochemistry. Results: RCC tissues showed mainly cytoplasmic IGF-IEc staining but immunoreactivity of IGF-IEc was also localized in the cell membrane. Significantly lower IGF-IEc expression was found in clear cell RCC vs. all other histological types (p=0.010), and this remained significant after adjusting for tumor size, grade, stage, and mitotic index (p<0.05). No association was found between IGF-IEc expression level and overall survival of patients with RCC. Conclusion: The differential expression of IGF-IEc isoform among the RCC histopathological types may indicate its histological type-specific regulation and possibly suggests a discrete biological role of this isoform in the pathophysiology of RCC. ER -