Prognostic Impact of Nectin4 and IRF6 Expression in Patients Undergoing Radical Cystectomy for Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer.

Background/Aim: Reliable biomarkers to stratify prognosis in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) undergoing radical cystectomy (RC) remain limited. This study investigated whether the expression of the recently emerging proteins Nectin4 and interferon regulatory factor 6 (IRF6) is associated with pathological stage and oncological survival outcomes in patients undergoing RC for MIBC. Materials and Methods: Two tissue microarrays comprising of 163 patients treated with RC for MIBC were analyzed at the University Hospital of Zürich. Immunohistochemistry was performed for Nectin4 and IRF6, staining intensity was quantified using H-scores. Associations with pathological stage were assessed using logistic regression. Progression-free survival (PFS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) were evaluated using Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier analysis. Results: =0.028). No strong significant association between Nectin4 or IRF6 and CSS was observed. Both markers were not able to independently predict PFS or CSS after adjustment for American Joint Committee on Cancer stages in multivariable analysis. Conclusion: Stronger Nectin4 and IRF6 expression is associated with less aggressive histopathological characteristics in patients undergoing RC for bladder cancer. Higher Nectin4 and IRF6 expression were further linked to a longer PFS in univariable analysis, but not independent of other prognostic factors.