Immunhistochemical expression of GLUT1 is associated with low grade and low stage of urinary bladder cancer

Many studies described glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1) as a fundamental player in cancer metabolism, which can be employed as a prognostic biomarker that may help in new treatment strategy development. This study will describe the pattern of GLUT1 expression in urinary bladder cancer and try to associate it with tumor clinicopathologic factors. Standard immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining protocol was utilized to identify the location and expression pattern of GLUT1 in a panel of 128 urinary bladder carcinoma compared to 24 normal tissues using tissue microarrays. GLUT1 expression was found up-regulated significantly in cancer cases, and it was found in 111 (86.7%) urinary bladder cancers compared to 4 (16.6%) of control cases (P < 0.05). Positive GLUT1 immunohistochemical staining was significantly correlated with low grade, low stage, and non-muscularis propria invasive urinary bladder cancer cases (P < 0.05). Log-rank test and Kaplan Meier survival curves displayed significant poor survival in stage III and stage IV patients (P < 0.05); mean survival is lowest at 29.924 months in stage IV patients. Similarly, significantly better survival is observed in low-grade tumors (P < 0.05). Urinary bladder cancer showed increased GLUT1 expression compared to a control group. IHC staining of GLUT1 can be a supportive tool in predicting prognostic and survival estimates of urinary bladder tumors with specific clinical and morphologic characteristics.