Expression of BCL2, TP53, FOXA1, and GATA3 in pTa bladder cancer recurrence

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: In this study, we analyzed pTa bladder cancer (BC) for molecular markers BCL2, TP53, FOXA1, and GATA3 in relation to cancer recurrence. METHODS: We analyzed samples of 79 patients with the pTa stage of BC using a real-time polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR) between September 2018 and September 2020. The expression levels of BCL2, TP53, FOXA1, and GATA3 were compared with homologous non-tumor bladder tissue. RESULTS: Expression of FOXA1, GATA3, and TP53 was significantly higher (p<0.01) in NMIBC samples compared to homologous non-tumor tissue. The expression of TP53 and FOXA1 in pTa was significantly lower (p<0.01) in the high-grade (HG) tumor when compared to the low-grade (LG) tumor. In contrast, the relative quantification (RQ) of GATA3 was significantly higher (p<0.01) in HG pTa. Patients with recurrence (pTa=33) had significantly higher expression of TP53, and GATA3 (p<0.01), and the gene of FOXA1 (p<0.01) had a significantly lower expression when compared to pTa tumors without recurrence. The expression of Bcl-2 was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: Our results, indicate, that comparing expression levels of these genes in cancer and cancerfree tissue could provide valuable data, as patients with pTa BC recurrence within up to 54 months of followup had a significantly higher RQ of TP53, GATA3, and FOXA1 when compared to pTa BC patients without recurrence (Tab. 2, Fig. 8, Ref. 54).