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Purpose:The aim of this study was to evaluate i) differences in the HLA groups of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patients and healthy control persons and ii) to study association of expression of uPA-family members and clinical factors in RCC patients.Methods:Peripheral blood samples from 91 RCC patients and from 203 healthy individuals used as controls were investigated for the incidence of HLA groups.In addition, tumors and adjacent normal tissue of 39 RCC patients were studied for the expression uPA, uPAR and PAI-1 on the protein level by ELISA.Expression levels were correlated with clinical data of the RCC patients.Results:We detected two HLA groups, HLA-Cw*7 and HLA-DRB 1*4 that were significantly higher in healthy test persons (34.6 % and 15.0 %) than in RCC patients (25.0 %, RR =0.7, p < 0.05 and 8.0 %;RR =0.5, p < 0.05), respectively.The detection levels for uPA and uPAR were 0.020 ng/ml, and for PAI-I 0.050 ng/ml.Elevated uPA and increased uPAR but not PAI-1 protein levels were significantly correlated with tumor size (p < 0.02 and p < 0.03), tumor grade (p < 0.04 and p < 0.05) and occurrence of metastases (p < 0.05 and p < 0.01;2-tests), respectively.RCC patients with an elevated expression of uPAR showed a 3yrs-survival rate of 53.5 % whereas patients with a normal expression possessed a rate of 83.3 % (p =0.12, Kaplan-Meier analysis) and showed a 2.8-fold but not significantly increased risk of tumor-related death (p =0.14, univariate Coxs regression analysis).Conclusion:There are HLA groups that occur less often in RCC patients than in healthy control persons.But it needs larger study populations and further immunological studies to investigate if special HLA-types can have a protective effect against RCC tumorigenesis.Elevated protein expression of uPA and uPAR is associated with major clinical factors, i.e., tumor size, tumor grade and metastases.