Significance of Tumor Suppressor Gene TCF21 Promoter Methylation for Diagnosis and Prognosis of Renal Cell Carcinoma

Objective  To investigate the clinical significance of promoter methylation of TCF21 for the diagnosis and prognosis of renal cell carcinoma(RCC).

Methods  Pyrosequencing technology was applied for quantitative detection of methylation level of TCF21 in the RCC and urine specimens. Statistics analysis was made after the detection.

Results  The methylation levels of TCF21 in RCC tissues and urine specimens were both increased (P=0.000, P=0.000). In RCC tissues, TCF21 methylation levels were closely related to age (P=0.003), smoking history (P=0.018), Fuhrman grade (P=0.046) and clinical stage (P=0.048). Correlation analysis found that there was a positively linear correlation between TCF21 methylation levels and age (r=0.403, P=0.002), smoking history (r=0.321, P=0.017) and Fuhrman grade (r=0.271, P=0.045) in RCC. In urine specimens, TCF21 methylation levels were closely related to tumor size (P=0.000), Fuhrman grade(P=0.013) and clinical stage(P=0.020). Correlation analysis found that there was a positively linear correlation between TCF21 methylation levels and tumor size (r=0.662, P=0.000) Fuhrman grade(r=0.441, P=0.010）and clinical stage (r=0.411, P=0.017) in RCC urine. And we found there were significant differences in postoperative and overall survival rates between high TCF21 methylation level (>35.42%) group and low TCF21 methylation level (≤35.42%) group (P=0.000, P=0.000). The area under ROC curve of TCF21 methylation levels in RCC tissues was higher than urine specimens (P=0.004).

Conclusion  TCF21 is associated with the occurrence, development and prognosis of RCC. The joint detection of RCC tissues specimens and RCC urine specimens may be used as important indexes for the diagnosis, prognosis and other biological behaviors of RCC.