Calgranulin A (S100A8) Immunostaining: A Future Candidate for Risk Assessment in Patients with Non-Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer (NMIBC)

There is an urgent need to identify patients with bladder cancer (BC) who are at high risk of recurrence or progression. Calgranulin A is a strong marker for muscle-invasive or advanced BC and recent studies have shown its potential for identifying patients at risk even in non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). The present study examines risks of recurrence and progression dependent on immunostaining with calgranulin A in NMIBC.

Calgranulin A protein expression was evaluated through the immunohistochemistry of 158 randomly selected, transurethrally resected BC specimens of separate patients (pTa 89, pT1 69) using tissue microarrays. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox regression were performed to determine whether calgranulin A expression is associated with recurrence-free survival (RFS), progression-free survival (PFS), or cancer-specific survival (CSS).

Calgranulin A expression is significantly different between pTa and pT1 tumors (p = 0.000, Mann-Whitney U test) and between tumor grades (p = 0.015, Kruskal-Wallis test). Kaplan-Meier estimates produced significant results for low and high calgranulin A expression concerning RFS [5y-RFS 70.4 ± 4.0% vs. 35.9 ± 12.5%, median RFS not reached (NR) vs. 12.0 ± 4.4 month, p = 0.029, log-rank test], PFS (5y-PFS 90.3 ± 2.7% vs. 51.5 ± 14.0%, median PFS NR in both groups, p = 0.000, log-rank test), and CSS (5y-CSS 92.9 ± 2.6% vs. 70.7 ± 12.4%, median CSS NR in both groups, p = 0.005, log-rank test). Calgranulin A remained an independent factor for RFS (p = 0.024, HR 2.43) and PFS (p = 0.002, HR 5.92) according to the multivariate Cox regression model.

Calgranulin A expression in NMIBC, detected through immunohistochemistry, is a promising marker for the identification of NMIBC patients at high risk of recurrence and progression.

Advances in therapy. 2018 Sep 19 [Epub ahead of print]

André P Nicklas, Mario W Kramer, Jürgen Serth, Jörg Hennenlotter, Marie C Hupe, Daniel U Reimer, Arnulf Stenzl, Axel S Merseburger, Markus A Kuczyk, Christoph-Alexander J von Klot

Department of Urology and Andrology, Tirol Kliniken Landeskrankenhaus Hall, Hall in Tirol, Austria. ., Department of Urology, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany., Department of Urology and Urologic Oncology, Hannover University Medical School, Hannover, Germany., Department of Urology, Eberhard-Karls-University, Tübingen, Germany., Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical University Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.