A-kinase interacting protein 1 high expression correlates with advanced tumor stage and poor overall survival in surgical patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma

The present study aimed to detect the A-kinase interacting protein 1 (AKIP1) expression in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) tumor tissues and adjacent tissues, and further investigate the correlation of tumor AKIP1 expression with clinicopathological features and survival profile in ccRCC patients. Totally 210 ccRCC patients who underwent resection were retrospectively reviewed, and their tumor and adjacent tissue specimens were acquired for immunohistochemical detection of AKIP1 expression. The survival data of patients were collected for overall survival (OS) assessment. AKIP1 was upregulated in ccRCC tumor tissues compared with adjacent tissues (P < .001). Tumor AKIP1 expression was positively associated with T stage (P = .019), N stage (P = .032), and TNM stage (P = .005) in ccRCC patients. According to AKIP1 expression in tumor tissues, all patients were grouped as AKIP1 low and high expression (AKIP1 high expression were further divided into AKIP1 high+, high++, and high+++ expression). OS was the lowest in the patients with AKIP1 high+++ expression, followed by those with AKIP1 high++ expression and AKIP1 high+ expression, and then patients with AKIP1 low expression (P < .001). Furthermore, multivariate Cox regression exhibited tumor AKIP1 high expression (P = .017), age (>60 years) (P = .030), pathological grade (G2/G3 vs G1) (P = .037), and TNM stage (II/III vs I) (P < .001) were independent predictive factors for decreased OS in ccRCC patients. AKIP1 presents potency to be a novel biomarker for tumor progression and prognosis surveillance in ccRCC.