Prognostic significance of erythrocyte protein band 4.1-like5 expression in upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma.

OBJECTIVES: The erythrocyte protein band 4.1-like5 (EPB4.1L5) regulates E-cadherin in cancer invasion and metastasis inducing epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. This study aimed to investigate the biological significance of EPB4.1L5 in upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC). METHODS: Retrospective analysis of the clinical records of 165 patients with UTUC (Ta-4N0M0) subjected to radical nephroureterectomy and immunohistochemical examination of EPB4.1L5 expression in those tissues. RESULTS: The median follow-up period was 62.2 months (interquartile range = 77.0). The score of EPB4.1L5 significantly correlated with tumor grade, pathological T stage, and lymphovascular invasion (all P<0.001). The 5-year Kaplan-Meier recurrence-free survival and cancer-specific survival rates were 54.1% and 59.5% in patients with high EPB4.1L5 expression, compared with 81.6% and 87.2%, (all P<0.001) in their counterparts. Multivariate analyses revealed that high expression of EPB4.1L5 was one of the independent prognostic factors for tumor recurrence (P = 0.022, HR = 2.40) and cancer-specific survival (P = 0.015, HR = 2.94). CONCLUSION: High EPB4.1L5 expression was related to worse clinical outcome in patients with UTUC. These results indicated that EPB4.1L5 could provide prognostic information in patients with UTUC regarding epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition.