Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the leading cancer affecting humans; however, the relationship between tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and patient prognosis in RCC is relatively unreported. This study aimed to investigate the relationships among factors (TIL, clinicopathological characteristics, and patient prognosis in RCC).This retrospective study evaluated 533 patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) deposited in the the Cancer Genome Atlas between 2004 and 2015. We downloaded immune cell type absolute fraction data for ccRCC patients from the Cancer Immunome Atlas database. The CIBERSORT method was used to transform RNA-sequencing data into microarray data for the cancer genome atlas -ccRCC samples for which microarray and RNA-sequencing data were available on the the Cancer Immunome Atlas website.The overall survival (OS) and disease free survival (DFS) analyses of ccRCC patients showed that M1 macrophages (OS, P = .00000134; DFS, P = .00958) and neutrophils (OS, P = .00000723; DFS, P = .0255) were significant. Age at diagnosis (P < .0001, c-index = 0.59), tumour stage (P < .0001, c-index = 0.667), stage (P < .0001, c-index = 0.729), neoplasm histological grade (P < .0001, c-index = 0.624), and haemoglobin level (P < .0001, c-index = 0.583) were independent predictors of OS. Similarly, the stage, haemoglobin level, and serum calcium level were independent predictors of DFS. There were significant correlations between the M1 macrophage fraction and tumour stage, stage, and neoplasm histological grade. Stage and neoplasm histological grade showed associations with the neutrophil fraction.The correlations between TILs and prognosis and clinicopathological characteristics in ccRCC were demonstrated. The prognosis of ccRCC patients may differ according to the TIL fractions.

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