Prognostic Value of Clinical and Pathological Features in Chinese Patients with Chromophobe Renal Cell Carcinoma: A 10-Year Single-Center Study

Objective: To evaluate the prognostic significance of clinicopathological features in a large series of Chinese patients with chromophobe renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Materials and Methods: Patients with chromophobe RCC who were treated surgically for renal masses at Chinese PLA General Hospital from 2006 to 2015 were identified. Tissue slides were reviewed to verify diagnoses and collect clinicopathological variables. Cox proportional hazard regression models and the Kaplan-Meier method were performed to evaluate the significance of clinicopathological variables on survival outcomes. Results: A total of 209 patients with chromophobe RCC were enrolled in this study. There were only 13 cancer-specific events, which included 7 local recurrences and 6 metastases. The estimated 5-year and 10-year disease-free survival (DFS) rates were 92.4% and 83.1%, respectively. Univariate analysis indicated that tumor size, 2010 AJCC TNM stage, grade, sarcomatoid differentiation and urinary collecting system invasion were correlated with poor DFS. Multivariate analysis revealed that tumor size, 2010 AJCC TNM stage and grade were independent predictors of DFS. Conclusions: According to this long-term follow-up on a large number of Chinese patients, we found that chromophobe RCC was associated with a very low rate of cancer-specific events (6.2%) and has a better prognosis than clear cell RCC. Tumor size, 2010 AJCC TNM stage and grade were independent prognostic factors in Chinese patients with chromophobe RCC. The presence of these features in a nephrectomy specimen with chromophobe RCC warrants more active surveillance.