Abstract
INTRODUCTION: It has been shown that CD47 is an important diagnostic and prognostic marker in many cancer types. However, the relationship between CD47 and bladder tumor stage has not been shown in previous studies. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study investigating the association of CD47 with stages of bladder cancer. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Surgical specimens of 175 patients were included in the study. The CD47 staining assessment was performed in the following categories; none, focal, moderate and diffuse. The statistics of the study were tested using t-test and analysis of variance. RESULTS: We demonstrated much less CD47 staining extent in Ta tumor pathology compared to T1 and T1+T2+T3+T4 tumor pathology (p = 0.034 and p = 0.016, respectively). We also showed that the average value of CD47 staining extent with CIS+ was significantly higher compared to CIS- among NMIBC (p = 0.0248). However, no significant differences in CD47 staining pattern were observed in the following study groups: high vs. low-grade tumors in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC); MIBC (T2-T4) vs. NMIBC; lymph node involvement (N1-N3) vs. non-lymph node involvement (N0) in MIBC (T2-T4). CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrated that CD47 might have a critical role in the progression of Ta to T1 stage. Furthermore, we showed that CD47 is highly expressed in CIS+ NMIBC compared to CIS- NMIBC. Thus, differentiating stages with the help of this new potential marker may help clinicians treat bladder tumors better. Future studies to determine the role of CD47 on pathophysiology, diagnosis and prognosis of bladder tumor are warranted.