Increased expression of transglutaminase-2 is associated with invasive disease in bladder cancer.

Purpose: Transglutaminase-2 is associated with tumor invasion, metastasis development, chemoresistance and poor prognosis in various cancer types. In this study, our aim was to show the association between increased transglutaminase-2 expression and the invasive pattern of bladder cancer.

Materials and methods: Tumor tissues from eighty-eight patients with bladder cancer (43 muscle-invasive, 45 non-muscle invasive bladder cancer) were immunohistochemically evaluated for TG2 expression.

Results: Transglutaminase-2 expression score was higher in muscle- invasive bladder cancer compared to non-muscle invasive bladder cancer tissues (5.37±1.5 vs 0.71±1.4, p<0.001). No statistically significant difference was found in transglutaminase- 2 expression scores between metastatic and non-metastatic disease in MIBC group. Different tumor and lymphnode stages in MIBC were also found to be not correlated with transglutaminase- 2 expression scores.

Conclusions: The over-expression of transglutaminase-2 is associated with invasive disease in bladder cancer. According to our results, transglutaminase-2 has the potential to be useful for predicting the invasion in bladder cancer and addressing treatment.