Abstract:

Objective To investigate the expression of ECM1 in bladder cancer tissue and its relationships with clinical pathological features and prognosis. Methods A total of 60 patients with bladder cancer who underwent radical surgery at Department of Urology， Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University from January 2018 to December 2019 were enrolled in this study. The mRNA expression of ECM1 in the bladder cancer tissues and adjacent normal tissues of the patients was compared. The relationships of the ECM1 expression with the clinical pathological features and the prognosis of bladder cancer patients were analyzed. Cox proportional hazard regression model was used to evaluate the factors affecting prognosis. Results The expression of ECM1 in the bladder cancer tissues was significantly increased. The positive rate of ECM1 protein in the cancer tissues was 56.67%， and the positive rate in the paracancerous tissues was 13.33%. The expression of ECM1 in the bladder cancer patients with pathology stage Ⅲ， TNM stage Ⅲ-Ⅳ， and lymph node metastasis was higher than that in those with pathology stage Ⅰ-Ⅱ， TNM stage Ⅰ-Ⅱ， and no lymph node metastasis. The patients with high expression of ECM1 had lower overall survival rates and poorer prognosis than those with low expression. Cox regression analysis showed that ECM1 was an independent risk factor affecting the prognosis of the patients. Conclusion The increased expression of ECM1 in bladder cancer tissues of bladder cancer patients is correlated with pathological grading， lymph node metastasis， TNM staging， and their prognosis. High expression of ECM1 is an independent risk factor for poor prognosis of the patients.

Key words: bladder cancer, ECM1, prognosis, risk factor