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Thomas Flaig, MD
Thomas Flaig, MD
Posted: Wednesday, April 26, 2023
New research fortifies the case for stratifying muscle-invasive bladder cancer by molecular subtype, given its potential use in the clinical setting, because subtype seems to be associated with disease progression. In a cohort of 130 patients, QuocThang Pham, PhD, of Ho Chi Minh City Medicine and Pharmacy University, Vietnam, and colleagues used immunohistochemical (IHC) markers for basal and luminal bladder cancer subtypes to discriminate between them, to determine their association with the disease’s clinicopathologic features, and to investigate their relationship with patients’ overall survival. Those with the lowest overall survival had the basal subtype and lacked intensive tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, the team reported. They presented their findings at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2023 (Abstract 768/10).
Using immunohistochemistry, the researchers classified muscle-invasive bladder cancer as basal (positive for CK5/6 and/or CD44 and negative for both CK20 and Gata3), luminal (negative for both CK5/6 and CD44 and positive for CK20 and/or Gata3), null (negative for all four markers), and mixed (expressing both basal and luminal markers). The basal, luminal, and null subtypes represented 35.3%, 29.2%, and 18.5% of cases, respectively.
No significant differences emerged in overall survival between the basal and mixed subtypes and the luminal and null subtypes (P = .090). However, the basal subtype without intensive tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes had the worst prognosis compared with the other subtypes (P = .012).
“The basal subtype was [further] associated with T stage (P = .035), squamous differentiation (P = .0002), stage (P = .035), and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (P = .047),” stated the investigators. Additionally, “the basal cell lines presented lower [half maximal inhibitory concentration] than luminal cell lines when the cells [were treated] with cisplatin.”
Disclosure: The study authors reported no conflicts of interest.
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