Trophoblast cell surface antigen 2 (Trop-2, encoded by TACSTD2) is the target protein of sacituzumab govitecan, a novel antibody-drug conjugate for locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma. However, the expression status of Trop-2 in upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) remains unclear. We performed immunohistochemical analysis of 99 UTUC samples to evaluate the expression status of Trop-2 in patients with UTUC and analyze its association with clinical outcomes. Trop-2 was positive in 94 of the 99 UTUC samples, and high Trop-2 expression was associated with favorable progression-free survival (PFS) and cancer-specific survival (p = 0.0011, 0.0046). Multivariate analysis identified high Trop-2 expression as an independent predictor of favorable PFS (all cases, p = 0.045; high-risk group (pT3≤ or presence of lymphovascular invasion or lymph node metastasis), p = 0.014). Gene expression analysis using RNA sequencing data from 72 UTUC samples demonstrated the association between high TACSTD2 expression and favorable PFS (all cases, p = 0.069; high-risk group, p = 0.029). In conclusion, we demonstrated that Trop-2 is widely expressed in UTUC. Although high Trop-2 expression was a favorable prognostic factor in UTUC, its widespread expression suggests that sacituzumab govitecan may be effective for a wide range of UTUC.
Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.). 2022 May 30*** epublish ***
Eisuke Tomiyama, Kazutoshi Fujita, Kosuke Nakano, Ken Kuwahara, Takafumi Minami, Taigo Kato, Koji Hatano, Atsunari Kawashima, Motohide Uemura, Tetsuya Takao, Hiroaki Fushimi, Kotoe Katayama, Seiya Imoto, Kazuhiro Yoshimura, Ryoichi Imamura, Hirotsugu Uemura, Norio Nonomura
Department of Urology, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka 565-0871, Japan., Department of Urology, Kindai University Faculty of Medicine, Osaka 589-8511, Japan., Department of Urology, Osaka General Medical Center, Osaka 558-8558, Japan., Department of Pathology, Osaka General Medical Center, Osaka 558-8558, Japan., Laboratory of Sequence Analysis, Human Genome Center, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 108-8639, Japan.