Immunohistochemical Expression of NECTIN-4 in Urothelial Carcinoma of the Urinary Bladder

Introduction: Urothelial bladder carcinoma is the most common histopathological type of urinary bladder cancer. Immunohistochemistry (IHC), as a diagnostic or prognostic method, could be helpful particularly in the differentiation between muscle invasive and non-muscle invasive urothelial carcinoma (MIUC, NMIUC) as it has completely different implication on clinical management of the patients. Nectin-4 has served as a tumor associated inducer in a number of tumor types including urothelial carcinoma (UC). This study aimed to evaluate Nectin-4 expression in invasive and non-invasive urothelial carcinoma and its association with the available clinico-pathological parameters. Materials and Methods: This retrospective cohort observational study was conducted on 60 cases of UC to detect the IHC expression of Nectin-4. Results: Nectin-4 showed high expression in UC of the urinary bladder carcinoma (78.3%). A non-significant upward association was observed between Nectin-4 expression and muscle invasive UC cases. Nectin-4 was more expressed in larger tumor size, and high grade and stage UCs, but with no significant difference. Conclusions: These findings suggest an important function of Nectin-4 in predicting the prognosis in UC of the urinary bladder.Abbreviations: IHC; immunohistochemistry, MIUC; muscle invasive urothelial carcinoma, NMIUC; non-muscle invasive urothelial carcinoma, UC; urothelial carcinoma,