Expression of B7-H3 in muscle infiltrating bladder cancer and its clinical significance

Objective To investigate the expression of B7-H3 in muscle infiltration bladder transitional cell carcinoma and its clinical significance. Methods The clinical and pathological data of 115 patients with muscle infiltration bladder transitional cell carcinoma who underwent radical surgery were retrospectively analyzed. The expression of B7-H3 in bladder cancer tissues and corresponding paracancerous tissues was detected by immunohistochemical staining, and the relationship between B7-H3 and clinicopathological characteristics was analyzed. Results The positive expression of B7-H3 was mainly in the cytoplasm, presenting brownish yellow granules. B7-H3 had positive expression in all bladder cancer tissues but no expression in paracancerous tissues. The high positive rate of B7-H3 expression in bladder cancer was 68.7%. The abnormal expression of B7-H3 was correlated with the distant metastasis and intravascular tumor thrombi (all P 0.05). The survival analysis result showed that the survival time of the patients with high expression of B7-H3 in the bladder cancer tissues was significantly lower than that of patients with low expression of B7-H3, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusion The expression of B7-H3 in muscle infiltration bladder cancer tissues is up-regulated and is positively associated with the distant metastasis of bladder cancer and intravascular tumor thrombus. The expression of B7-H3 may indicate poor prognosis of the patients with bladder cancer. Key words: Bladder cancer; Immunohistochemistry; B7-H3; Prognosis