Objective:To investigate the correlation between preoperative serum γ-glutamyl transferase (GGT) level and the postoperative survival of patients with renal cell carcinoma.Methods:The clinical data of 235 patients with renal cell carcinoma who underwent nephrectomy from December 2005 to December 2011 in the Affiliated Hospital of China University of Mining and Technology were retrospectively analyzed. According to the preoperative serum GGT level at 1.5 times the upper limit of normal value 90 U/L (the upper limit of normal value of samples in this study was 60 U/L), patients were divided into 2 groups: GGT ≤ 90 U/L group (218 cases) and GGT>90 U/L group (17 cases). The correlation between GGT and clinicopathological characteristics as well as postoperative survival of patient with renal cell carcinoma was also analyzed.Results:There were statistically significant differences in gender, age, the level of the aspartate aminotransferase (AST), the level of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), the neutrpphil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, neoplasm staging between GGT ≤ 90 U/L group and >90 U/L group (all P < 0.05). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that the median overall survival time was 84 months and 54 months, respectively in GGT ≤ 90 U/L group and GGT > 90 U/L group, and the difference was statistically significant of both groups ( χ2 = 4.334, P = 0.037). Univariate Cox proportional risk regression model showed that pathologic type, pathology T staging, preoperative GGT level, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) level, ALT level were influencing factors of postoperative overall survival in patient with renal cell carcinoma (all P < 0.05). The multivariate Cox regression model analysis showed that the pathological type ( HR = 2.323, 95% CI 1.228-4.396, P = 0.010), GGT level ( HR = 2.406, 95% CI 1.077-5.376, P = 0.032), LDH level ( HR = 2.320, 95% CI 1.080-4.981, P = 0.031) were independent influencing factors of postoperative overall survival in patient with renal cell carcinoma. Conclusions:Preoperative elevated serum GGT level is associated with poor prognosis of patients with renal cell carcinoma, and the monitoring of it may help to evaluate the prognosis of patients and provide guidelines for individual treatment method.