engleski

COMPARISON OF E-CADHERIN AND N-CADHERIN EXPRESSION IN CHROMOPHOBE RENAL CELL CARCINOMA AND RENAL ONCOCYTOMA

Cadherins are a class of type-1 transmembrane proteins that play important roles in cell adhesion. Renal oncocytoma (RO) is a benign renal epithelial neoplasm composed of large cells with eosinophilic cytoplasm. Chromophobe renal cell carcinoma (ChRCC) is a subtype of renal cell carcinoma characterized by large cells with prominent cell membranes. The eosinophilic variant of ChRCC is purely composed of intensively eosinophilic cells. In some cases, the distinction of renal oncocytoma and ChRCC based only on morphological characteristics can be difficult. The aim of this study was to determine and compare the immunohistochemical expression of E-cadherin and N-cadherin in RO and ChRCC. Thirty-one ChRCC samples and 29 RO samples from the archive of Ljudevit Jurak University Department of Pathology were examined. For each case, the percentage of stained tumor cells was estimated for both markers. The staining pattern was also noted. Results were analyzed using Mann-Whitney test and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient ; p<0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. All samples of RO and ChRCC showed positive membrane immunohistochemical reaction for E-cadherin ; median expression for RO was 53.45% and for ChRCC 94.71%. The difference in E-cadherin expression between the tumors was statistically significant. Comparison of the prognostic markers of ChRCC (size, tumor Fuhrman grades, pTN classification) with the expression of E-cadherin yielded no significant correlation. Immunohistochemical expression of N-cadherin was also only membranous, but very low in analyzed tumors with median expression for RO of 0.41% and for ChRCC of 0.32% ; the expression was statistically nonsignificant between tumor groups. In conclusion, RO and ChRCC were positive for E-cadherin, but ChRCC showed distinct completely membranous staining pattern that was significantly higher than in RO. However, additional research is needed to explore the potential diagnostic implications.

enal cell carcinoma; oncocytoma

nije evidentirano