TROP2 is associated with the recurrence of patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer

Human trophoblastic cell surface antigen 2 (TROP2), a single-transmembrane surface glycoprotein, has been demonstrated to play a critical role in tumorigenesis. Overexpression of TROP2 has been observed in a variety of human cancers. However, the clinical significance of TROP2 expression in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) remains unclear. Therefore, in this study we aim to investigate the correlations between TROP2 expression and prognosis in patients with NMIBC. Immunohistochemistry was performed to detect the expression of TROP2 protein in 102 primary NMIBC tissue specimens. Moreover, whether TROP2 is associated with clinicopathologic factors and prognosis was also analyzed. We found high expression of TROP2 protein in NMIBC. High expression of TROP2 was significantly associated with tumor grade (P=0.001), stage (P<0.001), and recurrence (P=0.03). The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis demonstrated that high TROP2 expression was significantly correlated to shorter recurrence-free survival (P=0.0012). Multivariate analysis further suggested that TROP2 was an independent prognostic factor for NMIBC (P=0.043). Therefore, TROP2 might be a novel molecular marker for predicting the recurrence of patients with NMIBC.