October 16, 2002 (Journal of the National Cancer Institute) -- Somatic alterations in the von Hippel-Lindau disease (VHL) tumor suppressor gene are common in sporadic clear-cell renal carcinoma.
In a study appearing in the October 16 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Masahiro Yao, M.D., Ph.D., of the Yokohama City University School of Medicine in Japan, and colleagues found that VHL alterations were strongly associated with better cancer-free survival and cancer-specific survival for patients with stage I-III clear-cell renal carcinoma treated by radical nephrectomy but that VHL alterations were not associated with cancer-specific survival for patients with stage IV tumors treated with palliative or adjunctive nephrectomy.
The authors conclude that the VHL status may provide useful prognostic information for patients with stage I-III disease treated with radical nephrectomy.
