Expression of HLA-G in cancer bladder

This study comprised 42 patients with cancer bladder, who underwent radical cystectomy. The aim of work is to determine if HLA-G is expressed on tumor cells, derived from cancer bladder. We studied HLA-G-mRNA expression using RT-PCR and HLA-G cell surface expression by immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining technique. HLA-G was expressed in 28.6 % of cancer cases as determined by PCR and on 16.7% of cases determined by IHC staining. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of IHC were 58.3%, 96% and 81.7% respectively as compared to PCR results. There was a highly significant increase in the expression of HLA-G on cancer bladder cases with metastatic prostate infiltration (P= 0.021). It is concluded that HLA-G is ectopically expressed on cancer bladder malignant cells both at molecular and protein levels. However, it is not significantly associated with histologic type, tumor grade, stage, T category, schistosomiasis and lymph node involvement.