Down-regulation of C12orf59 is associated with a poor prognosis and VHL mutations in renal cell carcinoma

C12orf59 is newly identified gene in kidney. However, the relation of C12orf59 expression and clinic features is unknown. Here, our study showed that C12orf59 was broadly expressed in normal human tissues with high expression levels in kidney while its expression is beyond detectable in a panel of cancer cell lines. C12orf59 expression in RCC was significantly decreased compared with corresponding adjacent noncancerous tissues (P < 0.01). The decreased C12orf59 expression was correlated with lymph node status (P < 0.05), distant metastases (P < 0.05), poor survival (P < 0.001) (HR 3.00; 95% CI, 1.29–7.53), VHL non-sense mutations or frame-shift mutations (P < 0.01), and UMPP gene non-sense mutations or frame-shift mutations (P = 0.01). Thus, we propose that the decreased C12orf59 expression status is a prognostic biomarker of ccRCC and cooperates with the loss of VHL all the while promoting renal carcinogenesis.