Preoperative serum lipid profile is associated with the aggressiveness of renal cell carcinoma

In order to investigate the potential relationship between serum lipid profile and renal cell carcinoma (RCC), we measured the levels of preoperative serum total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and correlated them with histopathological characteristics of RCC. The medical records of 382 patients with RCC who had underwent nephrectomy were retrospectively reviewed. The associations among preoperative TC, TG, HDL-C and LDL-C levels and histopathological characteristics such as tumor grade, stage and size were analyzed using logistic regression analysis. HDL-C was lower in the group with high-grade disease than in that with low-grade disease (P=0.015). Both HDL-C and TC were lower in the patients with advanced disease compared to those with localized disease (P=0.006 and P=0.005, respectively). LDL-C was lower in larger tumors (P=0.030). Logistic regression analysis indicated that high HDL-C levels were significantly associated with low-grade tumors (OR: 0.293, P=0.016) and localized disease (OR: 0.204, P=0.006). Furthermore, high TC levels were significantly associated with less advanced disease (OR: 0.660, P=0.005), and high LDL-C levels were significantly associated with smaller tumors (OR: 0.756, P=0.031). In conclusion, the results of this study indicate that serum lipid profile is associated with the histopathological characteristics of RCC.