Clinicopathological Significances of EZH2 & Twist-1 Combined Expressions in Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC)

Abstract Background: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is considered the commonest and most fatal malignant neoplasm of the kidney. Distant metastases are found in 30% of RCC patients at diagnosis, which is considered an important sign of predic-tion of patients' prognosis. So trying to clarify molecular mechanisms of metastases in RCC could help to discover a recent therapeutic target to decrease and control distant metastases and subsequently might improve patients prognosis.
Aim of the Study: Was to assess the EZH2 & Twist-1 combined expressions in RCC tissues with different histopatho-logical subtypes and to correlate their expression with clin-icopathological parameters.
Material and Methods: We have assessed expression of EZH2 & Twist-1 in tissue by using immunohistochemistry in 50 paraffin blocks of RCC different histopathological subtypes, analyzed correlations between the levels of combined expres-sions and clinicopthological data. Results: Increased EZH2 expression was positively asso-ciated with advanced AJCC stage, Lymph Node (L.N) metas-tases (p=0.006), higher grade (p<0.001), and presence of distant metastases (p=0.045). Increased Twist-1 expression was positively associated with higher grade, L.N (p<0.001) & distant metastases (p=0.04) and AJCC stage (p=0.01). Both EZH& Twist-1 expressions were positively correlated to each other (p<0.001).
Conclusion: EZH2 & Twist-1 are considered markers of poor prognosis in RCC and so they could be used as novel therapeutic targets in RCC patients.