Expression Of Zinc-Alpha 2-Glycoprotein (Azgp1) Is Associated With Clinical Prognosis Of Bladder Cancer A Tumor Marker?

Zinc-alpha 2-glycoprotein 1 (AZGP1) is a multidisciplinary protein that participates in many important functions in the human body, including fertilization, immunoregulation and lipid mobilization. Recently, it has been shown that AZGP1 is also involved in carcinogenesis and tumor differentiation. In this study, expression levels and prognostic value of AZGP1 was investigated in bladder cancers. Samples from enrolled 10 paired fresh frozen samples were collected including both adjacent noncancerous tissues and urothelium carcinoma, and total 174 cases of each grade urothelial carcinoma samples. RT-PCR was utilized to detected 10 paired BCa samples and adjacent noncancerous tissues. Subsequently, 174 samples were determined by immunohistochemistry analysis. Expression levels of AZGP1 in clinical bladder cancer were significantly lower than that in paired adjacent noncancerous tissues (P<0.05). Low level expression of AZGP1 was closely related with differentiation (P=0.013) and tumor style (P=0.028) of patients with bladder cancer. Additionally, Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that the expression of AZGP1 was closely correlated with overall survival (P=0.019) of bladder cancer, while, recurrence-free survival (P=0.006). Moreover, Cox multivariate regression analyses showed that AZGP1 expression was an independent predictor of overall survival (HR=3.214, 95% CI: [1.008-9.341], P=0.046) and recurrence-free survival (HR=4.507, 95% CI: [1.730-12.412], P=0.005). This study suggests that AZGP1 might serve as a candidate tumor suppressor and a potential prognostic biomarker in bladder carcinogenesis.