Kang HW et al. – The prognostic implications of the pre-operative serum total cholesterol (TC) level in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) has not been established. In the current study, a low pre-operative serum TC level was shown to be associated with aggressive tumor characteristics and poor cancer-specific survival (CSS) in patients with surgically-treated RCC.

Methods

• 3064 patients with RCC who underwent radical or partial nephrectomy were studied.

Results

• Low pre-operative serum TC levels were associated with aggressive tumor characteristics, including large tumor size, advanced stage, high nuclear grade, lymph node involvement, and sarcomatous differentiation.
• Low TC levels were associated with poor recurrence-free or CSS.
• The pre-operative TC level was shown to be an independent predictor of CSS.