C-reactive protein: A biomarker of survival in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma treated with subcutaneous interleukin-2 based immunotherapy

ABSTRACTPurpose: In patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma treated with low dose subcutaneous interleukin-2 based immunotherapy we evaluated a panel of biohumoral and clinical parameters before treatment to verify their correlation with clinical outcome.Materials and Methods: We analyzed the records of 110 patients treated at our institution. Before treatment total lymphocytes, lactate dehydrogenase, the erythrocyte sedimentation rate, albumin, C-reactive protein (CRP) and fibrinogen were analyzed and correlated with clinical parameters, namely performance status, patient age, sex, prior nephrectomy, number and sites of disease, and disease-free interval (DFI) from nephrectomy to metastatic disease.Results: Median survival was 12 months (partial and complete response 33, stable disease 14 and progression 7). The overall response was 24% for a partial and complete response, 37% for stable disease and 39% for progression. On univariate analysis good performance status (p = 0.0000), prior nephrectomy ...