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. 2000 Jun 15;83(2):209–214. doi: 10.1054/bjoc.2000.1233

Low E-cadherin expression in bladder cancer at the transcriptional and protein level provides prognostic information

Z Popov 1,3, S Gil-Diez de Medina 1,2, M-A Lefrere-Belda 1, A Hoznek 1, S Bastuji-Garin 1, C C Abbou 1, J P Thiery 2, F Radvanyi 2, D K Chopin 1
PMCID: PMC2363483  PMID: 10901372

Abstract

We studied E-cadherin down-regulation at the protein level in frozen sections of 111 bladder tumours and 13 normal bladder specimens by means of immunohistochemistry, and at the mRNA level by semi-quantitative RT-PCR in 40 of the same tumours. Results indicate that E-cadherin expression detected by immunohistochemistry correlated with both stage and grade (P< 0.0001 and P< 0.001, respectively). Analysis of recurrence, progression and survival over a mean period of 36 months after surgery in the entire cohort showed that abnormal E-cadherin immunoreactivity correlated strongly with poor outcome (log-rank test: P = 0.001, P = 0.0001 and P = 0.0003, respectively). In multistep logistic regression analysis, only E-cadherin status and stage had significant additional prognostic value (P = 0.008 and OR = 0.2;P = 0.03 and OR = 3.6, respectively). Survival estimates derived from RT-PCR transcript quantification differed significantly for low and high expression (log-rank test: P = 0.0006). These results suggest that the alteration occurs at the transcriptional level and support the clinical and biological relevance of cell adhesion molecules in bladder cancer. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaign

Keywords: bladder carcinoma, E-cadherin, markers, prognosis, gene expression, cell adhesion

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Selected References

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