Prognostic Significance of E-cadherin Expression in Renal Cell Carcinoma

Kim, Tae Hyoung; Seo, Kyung Keun; Kim, Young Sun

Abstract

E-cadherin is one of intercellular adhesion molecules, and it has been demonstrated that E- cadhedrin acts as an invasion suppressor in vitro and loss of its expression is an important prognostic factor in human malignancies. However the prognostic value of loss of expression of E-cadhedrin in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) remains to be defined. We herein immunohistochemically examined the expression of E-cadhedrin in paraffin- embedded tissues of 43 patients with RCC to investigate the prognostic value of loss of expression of E-cadherin. Twenty three of 43 patients (54.5%) showed loss of expression of E- cadherin. There were significant correlations between loss of expression of E-cadherin and histopathologic grade, Robson stage, T stage, N stage and M stage (all p<0.05). Patients with loss of expression of E-cadherin showed significantly decreased 2 year disease free survival as compared with those with normal expression of E-cadherin (p<0.001). These results suggest that loss of expression of E-cadherin has a ominous prognostic value in patients with RCC.