Correlation of TRAIL expression with prognosis of bladder transitional cell carcinoma.

Objective To determine expression of tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand(TRAIL) in bladder transitional cell carcinoma(BTCC) and normal bladder tissues and to explore the correlation among TRAIL and clinico-pathological parameters and prognosis of BTCC.Methods TRAIL protein expression was determined by immunohistochemistry assay(Elivision).Results TRAIL negative expression was shown in 45(59.21%) of the 76 cases of BTCC,and it was higher in poorly differentiated(G2,G3) tumors than in well differentiated (G1) tumors(68.63% vs 40.00%,P0.05),and also it was significantly higher in multiple tumors than in single tumors(75.86 % vs 48.94%,P0.05).Survival curves determined by the Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test analysis demonstrated that recurrence free survival rates in the group of negative expression of TRAIL were lower than those in the group of positive expression(33.65 months vs 46.49 months,P0.05).Conclusion Expression of TRAIL has a negative correlation with different tumor numbers,grades and recurrence of BTCC;therefore,it can be used as a promising marker for prognosis.