nonendothelial kdrflk1 expression is associated with increased survival of patients with urothelial bladder carcinomas aims to investigate the immunohistochemical expression of kdrflk1 in a series of 114 urothelial bladder carcinomas in relation to clinicopathological parameters ki67 p53 and bcl2 protein expression and patient survival kdrflk1 is a highaffinity tyrosine kinase receptor for vascular endothelial growth factor vegf on vascular endothelium however there is increasing evidence that kdrflk1 is also expressed by normal nonendothelial and tumour cellsmethods and results immunohistochemistry was performed on paraffin sections using monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies statistical analysis was univariate chi2 log rank test and multivariate coxs model kdrflk1 expression was observed in the cytoplasm of cancerous cells in 684 of cases no statistically significant associations were observed between kdrflk1 expression and grade or stage of urothelial carcinomas ki67 p53 or bcl2 expression in contrast widespread kdrflk1 expression in more than 50 of cancerous cells was associated with increased survival on univariate and multivariate analysis p 00119 and p 0042 respectivelyconclusions although the biological significance of nonendothelial kdrflk1 expression has not yet been elucidated its association with better patient survival may be related to the failure of nonendothelial kdrflk1 to mediate angiogenic and mitogenic effects