Objective  To study the role of ROS1 in renal clear cell carcinoma (ccRCC).

Methods  We used The Cancer Genome Map (TCGA) and the Comprehensive Database of Gene Expression (GEO, GSE781) to analyze ROS1 expression. Pearson χ² test was used to analyze the relationship between ROS1 expression and clinical pathological variables. Cox regression analysis was used to analyze the correlation between clinical variables and the prognosis of single factor/multiple factors. Kaplan-Meier established a survival curve and compared the different survival curves.

Results  The relationship between prognostic factors and survival outcomes was evaluated in univariate and multivariate analysis. Compared with the control group, the expression of ROS1 was up-regulated in cancer tissues (P<0.05). In univariate Cox regression analysis, ROS1 was significantly correlated with disease prognosis in TCGA and GSE781 databases (P<0.05). The incidence of 12-year overall survival (OS) in patients with high expression of ROS1 was significantly lower than that in the low expression group［hazard ratio (HR)= 2.11, 95%(confidence interval (CI) 1.54~ 2.88, P<0.001). The incidence of 12-year disease specific survival (DSS) in patients with high expression of ROS1 was significantly lower than that in the low expression group (HR=2.34, 95%CI 1.56~3.50, P<0.001). In multivariate Cox regression analysis, high expression of ROS1 was an independent prognostic marker for OS (HR=2.020, 95%CI 1.185~ 3.442, P=0.010) and disease-free survival (DFS) (HR=2.369, 95%CI 1.201~4.671, P=0.013).

Conclusions  ROS1 was highly expressed in the progression of renal clear cell carcinoma, so ROS1 had certain significance for the prognosis of patients with renal clear cell carcinoma.