High mucin 5AC expression predicts adverse postoperative recurrence and survival of patients with clear-cell renal cell carcinoma

Mucin 5AC (MUC5AC), as a member of secreted/gel-forming mucin family, was frequently found to be abnormally expressed in inflammation or malignant diseases. However, the clinic pathologic features and prognostic values of MUC5AC in clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) have not been reported up to now.

MUC5AC expression was analyzed by immunohistochemistry on tissue microarrays. Kaplan-Meier survival curves, Univariate and Multivariate Cox analysis and newly-established nomogram model were performed to evaluate the prognostic value.

MUC5AC expression was firstly found to be up-regulated in patients with ccRCC, positively associated with tumor size, pN stage, lymphovascular invasion, Fuhrman grade, rahbdoid differentiation, sarcomatoid features, tumor necrosis, ECOG-PS and recurrence. Furthermore, MUC5AC expression might be contributed to risk stratification of ccRCC patients with TNM stage III+IV or Fuhrman grade 3 or 4 for overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) analysis, and it was demonstrated to be negatively correlated with OS and RFS of ccRCC patients. What's more, MUC5AC was identified as a potential independent adverse prognostic factor; prediction accuracy of MUC5AC-based new nomogram model was drastically improved for OS and RFS of ccRCC patients.

MUC5AC is a promising independent adverse prognostic factor for ccRCC patients, it maybe conducive to postoperative risk stratification and guide treatment in the future.

Oncotarget. 2017 Mar 04*** epublish ***

Haijian Zhang, Yidong Liu, Huyang Xie, Weisi Liu, Qiang Fu, Dengfu Yao, Jiejie Xu, Jianxin Gu

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China., Department of Urology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, China., Research Center of Clinical Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Jiangsu, China.