High CHD9 expression is associated with poor prognosis in clear cell renal cell carcinoma

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is the most common subtype of renal cell carcinoma. The chromohelicase-DNA binding proteins (CHDs), containing nine members named CHD1-9, act as regulators of the chromatin remodeling process and gene expression. To determine the correlation between CHD9 expression and ccRCC, we performed an immunohistochemical staining in a tissue microarray (TMAs) containing tissue samples from 88 ccRCC patients. The results showed that cytoplasm CHD9 expression was statistically decreased in tumor tissues compared to adjacent tissues (8.54 +/- 2.90 vs 12.61 +/- 2.05, P=0.000), while nuclear CHD9 expression was upregulated in the tumor tissues (1.47 +/- 2.93 vs 0.29 +/- 1.24, P=0.000). A univariate analysis found that cytoplasm CHD9 expression in cancer tissues was correlated with the patients' pathological grading (P=0.002, r=0.330), the clinical stages (P=0.02, r=0.250) and the T grading (P=0.024, r=0.241) significantly. In addition, cytoplasm CHD9 expression in non-tumor tissues was correlated with the ccRCC patients' pathological grading (P=0.031, r=-0.231) significantly. Patients with high cytoplasm CHD9 expression had a significantly worse prognosis than those with low cytoplasm CHD9 expression levels (59.7% vs 85.7%, P=0.042). In conclusion, our study indicated the important role of CHD9 in ccRCC and suggested CHD9 may be a potential biomarker for prognostic prediction and a new target for therapy.