ZBP-89, a Kruppel-type zinc-finger transcription factor, is found to participate in tumor development, invasion and metastasis. However, the expression status of ZBP-89 in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (CCRCC) remains elusive. Using quantitative real-time-PCR and Western Blot, we found that, in fresh cancer tissues, ZBP-89 was remarkably decreased in 79.2% (19/24) and 83.3% (5/6) of CCRCC at mRNA and protein level, respectively. Immunohistochemistry also revealed a significant decline of ZBP-89 expression in CCRCC, showing that low expression of ZBP-89 was present in 73.9% (105/142) of tumorous tissues but in 48.1% (52/108) of the corresponding adjacent kidney tissues. Furthermore, ZBP-89 expression in CCRCC was significantly correlated with several clinicopathological features, including TNM stage (P = 0.005) and distal metastasis (P = 0.001). Further study confirmed that ZBP-89 expression was markedly higher in metastatic CCRCC than that in non-metastatic tissue (P = 0.002). In addition, CCRCC patients with low ZBP-89 expression survived longer than those with high ZBP-89 expression, as indicated by the result of univariate analysis (P < 0.0001). More importantly, multivariate analysis revealed that ZBP-89 was an independent predictor of overall survival (HR, 2.871; 95% Cl, 1.409-5.853; P = 0.004). Collectively, our study provides vigorous evidence that ZBP-89 was significantly downregulated in CCRCC and could be served as a promising biomarker for prediction of distal metastasis and prognosis of patient with CCRCC. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.