High expression of FUT3 is linked to poor prognosis in clear cell renal cell carcinoma

// Li Meng 1, * , Le Xu 1, * , Yuanfeng Yang 2, * , Lin Zhou 2 , Yuan Chang 2 , Tianming Shi 1 , Cheng Tan 1 , Huimin An 1 , Yu Zhu 1 and Jiejie Xu 3 1 Department of Urology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China 2 Department of Urology, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China 3 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Yu Zhu, email: zyyyhyq@126.com Jiejie Xu, email: jjxufdu@fudan.edu.cn Keywords: clear cell renal cell carcinoma, fucosyltransferase-III, prognosis, overall survival, recurrence free survival Received: November 01, 2016     Accepted: April 17, 2017     Published: May 09, 2017 ABSTRACT Background and Purpose: Some of the fucosylation catalyzed by fucosyltransferase-III mediates the epithelial-mesenchymal transition and enhances tumor cell-macrophage signaling, which promotes malignant transforming and immune evasion. The aim of the study was to investigate the association between the expression of fucosyltransferase-III and clinical outcomes of patients with clear-cell renal cell carcinoma after surgery. Results: High fucosyltransferase-III expression was associated with a greater risk of recurrence ( p = 0.002) and shortened overall survival ( p < 0.001). We then established a prognostic nomogram including tumor size, pathologic T, N, M stage, coagulative necrosis, lymphovascular invasion and fucosyltransferase-III expression. Furthermore, the predictive accuracy of the Leibovich prognostic score was improved when fucosyltransferase-III expression was added ( p = 0.009 for overall survival and p = 0.002 for recurrence-free survival). Materials and Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 406 patients who underwent partial or radical nephrectomy between January 2008 and December 2009 in a single institute. Fucosyltransferase-III expression levels were evaluated by immunohistochemical staining in tumor tissues. Kaplan-Meier method was applied to compare survival curves. Cox regression models were fitted to analyze the effect of prognostic factors on recurrence-free and overall survival. Harrell’s concordance index and Akaike’s Information Criteria were calculated to assess predictive accuracy. Conclusions: Fucosyltransferase-III is a predictive factor for poor overall survival and recurrence free survival in patients with ccRCC. The inhibitor of fucosyltransferase-III might be a potential therapeutic method for the disease.