Tspan8 Is Highly Expressed in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma and Indicates Poor Prognosis.

Objective: Tspan8 (tetraspanin 8) plays critical roles in cell adhesion and motility. Recently, Tspan8 overexpression has been found in various tumors. However, its expression status and prognostic significance in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) remains unknown. The objective of the present study was to assess the expression of Tspan8 and its correlation with clinicopathological features in ccRCC.

Methods: Tspan8 expression was detected in 150 cases of ccRCC and matched paracancerous tissues by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and its relevance with prognosis was analyzed.

Results: Our data showed that the high-expression rate of Tspan8 in ccRCC tissues was 74.0%, which was significantly higher than those in paracancerous kidney tissues (43.3%, =0.001). Meanwhile, Tspan8 expression was positively correlated with tumor size and WHO/ISUP grade in ccRCC. Significantly, Kaplan-Meier analysis and log-rank test revealed that Tspan8 higher expression was associated with poorer overall survival (OS) in ccRCC patients (<0.05). Cox regression analysis further showed that Tspan8 was a significant independent negative prognostic factor for these patients.

Conclusion: Tspan8 is overexpressed in ccRCC and indicates poor prognosis, suggesting potential roles of Tspan8 in prognostication and targeted therapy.