1. ¹Dipartimento Misto di Anatomia Patologica e di Medicina Legale, Sezione di Anatomia Patologica, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
2. ²Centro di Ricerche Oncologiche 'Giovanni XXIII', Istituto di Patologia Generale, Catholic University, Rome, Italy

Correspondence: Dr A Sgambato, MD, PhD, Istituto di Patologia Generale, Centro di Ricerche Oncologiche 'Giovanni XXIII', Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Largo Francesco Vito 1, 00168 Rome, Italy. E-mail: asgambato@rm.unicatt.it

Received 2 November 2004; Revised 12 January 2005; Accepted 13 January 2005; Published online 22 April 2005.

Abstract

Mutations in microsatellite sequences are a hallmark of neoplastic transformation and have been reported in the majority of human cancers. Conflicting results have been reported on the role of microsatellite alterations in bladder tumorigenesis and it has been suggested that they might be mainly involved in the development of bladder cancers in young patients. In this study, DNA was extracted from laser-microdissected samples of 51 superficial papillary bladder urothelial carcinomas arising in young patients and was analyzed for the status of 19 microsatellite loci previously reported to be associated with bladder tumorigenesis. The occurrence and the pattern of microsatellite alterations, in form of loss or length variation, was evaluated and correlated with other clinicopathologic and molecular markers. The prognostic significance of these alterations was also evaluated. Loss of heterozygosity at one or more loci was detected in all 51 tumors analyzed. Length variation in at least one locus was observed in 48 (94%) of the cases. The microsatellite that was more frequently altered was D11S488 (69%), followed by D9S162 (61%), D3S3050 (55%), D3S1300 (51%) and D4S243 (51%), all the remaining being altered in less than 50% of cases. The occurrence of microsatellite alterations was not associated with tumor grade nor with tumor stage, the expression of p53, cyclin D1 or the cyclin-dependent kinase-inhibitor p27^Kip1 while it was significantly more frequent in tumors with increased expression of the proliferation marker MIB-1 (P=0.003). The occurrence of alterations at the analyzed loci was associated with a reduced risk of tumor recurrence (P=0.04 by log-rank test) and disease progression (P=0.02) in a univariate analysis. These findings demonstrate that microsatellite alterations are frequent and early events and might have a prognostic significance in bladder cancers arising at young age.