Prognostic Impact of CD36 Immunohistochemical Expression in Patients with Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer Treated with Cystectomy and Adjuvant Chemotherapy.

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by a cystectomy is the standard treatment in muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC). However, the role of chemotherapy in the adjuvant setting remains controversial, and therefore new prognostic and predictive biomarkers are needed to improve the selection of MIBC patients. While lipid metabolism has been related to several biological processes in many tumours, including bladder cancer, no metabolic biomarkers have been identified as prognostic in routine clinical practice. In this multicentre, retrospective study of 198 patients treated with cystectomy followed by platinum-based adjuvant chemotherapy, we analysed the immunohistochemical expression of CD36 and correlated our findings with clinicopathological characteristics and survival. CD36 immunostaining was positive in 30 patients (15%) and associated with more advanced pathologic stages (pT3b-T4; p = 0.015). Moreover, a trend toward lymph node involvement in CD36-positive tumours, especially in earlier disease stages (pT1-T3; p = 0.101), was also observed. Among patients with tumour progression during the first 12 months after cystectomy, disease-free survival was shorter in CD36-positive tumours than in those CD36-negative (6.51 months (95% CI 5.05-7.96) vs. 8.74 months (95% CI 8.16-9.32); p = 0.049). Our results suggest an association between CD36 immunopositivity and more aggressive features of MIBC and lead us to suggest that CD36 could well be a useful prognostic marker in MIBC.

Journal of clinical medicine. 2022 Jan 19*** epublish ***

Juan Carlos Pardo, Tamara Sanhueza, Vicenç Ruiz de Porras, Olatz Etxaniz, Helena Rodriguez, Anna Martinez-Cardús, Enrique Grande, Daniel Castellano, Miquel A Climent, Tania Lobato, Lidia Estudillo, Mireia Jordà, Cristina Carrato, Albert Font

Medical Oncology Department, Catalan Institute of Oncology, Ctra. Can Ruti- Camí de les Escoles s/n, 08916 Badalona, Spain., Pathology Department, Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol, 08916 Badalona, Spain., Catalan Institute of Oncology, Badalona Applied Research Group in Oncology (B·ARGO), 08916 Badalona, Spain., Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP), 08916 Badalona, Spain., Medical Oncology Department, Hospital Universitario Ramon y Cajal, 28034 Madrid, Spain., Medical Oncology Department, Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, 28041 Madrid, Spain., Medical Oncology Department, Instituto Valenciano de Oncologia, 46009 Valencia, Spain., Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology Group, Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), CIBERONC, 28029 Madrid, Spain.