TROY expression is associated with pathological stage and poor prognosis in patients treated with radical cystectomy.

Abstract

BACKGROUND\nNew biomarkers may help us provide individualized prognosis and allow risk-stratified clinical decision making about radical treatment.\n\n\nOBJECTIVES\nThis study aimed to determine the tumor necrosis factor of receptor superfamily 19 (TROY) expression in urothelial carcinoma and its relationship to clinicopathological findings.\n\n\nMETHODS\nImmunohistochemical staining for TROY was carried out in 136 archival radical cystectomy specimens with immunoreactivity being stratified on a 0-9 scale. Expression scores for TROY were further stratified into negative (score 0) and positive (score 1 or greater). Median age was 65 years, and the median follow-up period was 50.7 months.\n\n\nRESULTS\nExpression of TROY was significantly associated with the pathological stage (p= 0.019) and expression of nestin (p= 0.013). Log-rank tests indicated that expression of TROY was significantly associated with disease progression and cancer-specific mortality (p= 0.044 and 0.008, respectively). In multivariate Cox regression analysis, lymph node status was the only independent prognostic factor for disease progression and cancer-specific survival. Expression of TROY was a marginal prognostic factor for cancer-specific survival.\n\n\nCONCLUSIONS\nTROY may therefore be a new molecular marker to aid in identifying and selecting patients undergoing radical cystectomy who could potentially benefit from multimodal treatment.