Expression of Prostate-specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA) in Papillary Renal Cell Carcinoma - Overview and Report on a Large Multicenter Cohort.

Prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is an emerging diagnostic and therapeutic target in prostate cancer. 68Ga-PSMA-labeled hybrid imaging is used for the detection of prostate primary tumors and metastases. Therapeutic applications such as Lutetium-177 PSMA radionuclide therapy or bispecific antibodies that target PSMA are currently under investigation within clinical trials. The expression of PSMA, however, is not specific to prostate-tissue. It has been described in the neovascular endothelium of different types of cancer such as breast cancer, and clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). The aim of this study was to analyze PSMA expression in papillary RCC (pRCC) type 1 and type 2, the most common non-ccRCC subtypes, and to evaluate the potential of PSMA-targeted imaging and treatment in pRCC. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue samples of primary tumors were analyzed for PSMA expression by immunohistochemistry. Out of n=374 pRCC specimens from the multicenter PANZAR consortium, n=197 pRCC type 1 and n=110 type 2 specimens were eligible for analysis and correlated with clinical data. In pRCC type 1 PSMA staining was positive in 4 of 197 (2.0%) samples whereas none (0/110) of the pRCC type 2 samples were positive for PSMA in this large cohort of pRCC patients. No significant PSMA expression was detected in pRCC. Reflecting current clinical evaluation of PMSA expression in RCC do not encourage further analysis in papillary subtypes.

Journal of Cancer. 2022 Mar 14*** epublish ***

Stefanie Zschäbitz, Franziska Erlmeier, Christine Stöhr, Edwin Herrmann, Iris Polifka, Abbas Agaimy, Lutz Trojan, Philipp Ströbel, Frank Becker, Christian Wülfing, Peter Barth, Michael Stöckle, Michael Staehler, Christian Stief, Axel Haferkamp, Markus Hohenfellner, Stephan Macher-Göppinger, Bernd Wullich, Joachim Noldus, Walburgis Brenner, Frederik C Roos, Bernhard Walter, Wolfgang Otto, Maximilian Burger, Andres Jan Schrader, Yvonne Mondorf, Arndt Hartmann, Philipp Ivanyi, Sandra Steffens

Dept. of Medical Oncology, National Center of Tumor Diseases, University Hospital Heidelberg, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany., Institute of Pathology, University Hospital Erlangen-Nuernberg, Friedrich Alexander University (FAU), 91054 Erlangen, Germany., Department of Urology, University Hospital Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany., Department of Urology, University Hospital Göttingen, 37075 Göttingen, Germany., Institute of Pathology, University Hospital Göttingen, 37075 Göttingen, Germany., Department of Urology and Pediatric Urology, University Hospital Saarland (UKS), 66421 Homburg, Germany., Department of Urology, University Hospital Marburg, 35037 Marburg, Germany., Department of Urology, University Hospital Munich, 81337 Munich, Germany., Department of Urology, University Hospital Heidelberg, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany., Institute of Pathology, University Hospital Mainz, 55131 Mainz, Germany., Department of Urology and Pediatric Urology, University Hospital Erlangen, 91058 Erlangen, Germany., Department of Urology, Marien-Hospital Herne, Ruhr University Bochum, 44625 Herne, Germany., Department of Urology, University Hospital Mainz, 55131 Mainz, Germany., Department of Urology, University Hospital Frankfurt, 60590 Frankfurt/Main, Germany., Department of Urology, University Hospital Regensburg, 93053 Regensburg, Germany., Department of Hematology, Hemostasis, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation, Hannover Medical School, 30625 Hannover, Germany.