Lymphopenia as a prognostic factor in renal cell carcinoma.

Abstract

470 Background: Lymphopenia is known to be a negative prognostic marker for NHL and hematological malignancies, recent observational studies evaluated the presence of lymphopenia and its impact in solid tumor like colon, lung and pancreatic cancer. We aim to assess the effect of Lymphopenia at the renal cell carcinoma (RCC) survival. Methods: A retrospective review of 207 patients diagnosed with RCC between 1995 and 2008 in a community hospital setting was done. Patients with additional malignancies, lymphoma of the kidneys, with no follow up data or no preoperative complete blood count test were excluded. Demographics, preoperative complete blood count, pathology, disease stage, operative note, and subsequent follow up data were reviewed. Lymphopenia was defined as absolute lymphocytic count < 1200/µl. Last follow up date was used to calculate the 3 year overall survival. The primary outcome was 3 year overall survival. Results: A total of 207 patients were included in the study. Caucasians were 176(85.9%), African Americans were 13.7% and Asians were 1(0.5%). Males (M) were 127 (62.3%) and females (F) were 77(37.7%). The median age of the study population was 65 (22-91. Clear cell histology was seen in 79%. Stage I was seen in 53.9%, II in 23.5%, III in 13.7% and IV in 8.8% of the study population. Lymphopenia was seen in 81 (40%) patients (95 CI 34-48). Lymphopenia was seen in 31.8% of stage I; 50% of stage II, 41.4% of stage III, and 65% of stage IV patients (p=0.017). Lymphopenia was seen in 28.6% of African Americans and 42.7% of Caucasians (p=0.11). Lymphopenia was seen in 32.1% of females and 45.7% of males (p=0.03). The 3 year overall survival for the study population was 67.3% (95% CI: 60.4-73.7). The 3-year overall survival for patients with lymphopenia was 60.5%, compared to 73.6% in non-lymphopenic patients (p=0.04). Conclusions: Lymphopenia was seen to be higher among males and Caucasians, more frequently at advanced stage at diagnosis. Patients with lymphopenia were observed to have significantly worse survival when compared to patients with normal lymphocytic count in RCC. We conclude that lymphopenia is considered as a negative prognostic factor for RCC, and needed to be studied in the correlation of other known prognostic factors.