Purpose: The correlation between the serum soluble interleukin-2 receptor (SIL-2R) levels and clinical stage is demonstrable in a variety of non-Hodgkin lymphomas. The prognostic significance of sIL-2R levels in the serum of patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) was investigated.
Method: sIL-2R were measured in patients with RCC (n=39) and normal control (n=6) by the enzyme immunoassay technique. Cases of RCC were classified according to the clinical stage, pathological grade and growth type. The IL-2R expression of RCC was evaluated by RT-PCR.
Result: The serum sIL-2R levels of patients with RCC showed significantly higher values than those of controls (p < 0.05). The serum sIL-2R levels in RCC were closely associated with the stage, grade and growth type of disease. The patients with high serum sIL-2R level (> = 1,000 U/L) exhibited a significantly poorer prognosis than those with low serum sIL-2R level (<1,000 U/L). The band of IL-R was detected only by using the template from the mRNA extracted from a resected tumor tissue of the RCC but not from the RCC cell lines.
Conclusion: It was suggested that the measurement of serum sIL-2R levels is useful for predicting the prognosis.