Therefore, it has been suggested that the immunohistochemical expressions of only two markers, luminal (CK20+, CK5/6-) and basal (CK5/6+, CK20-), is sufficient to identify the molecular subtypes of bladder cancer.
At least two markers (MRE11 and CK20) were significantly associated with survival in patients with bladder cancer, and a further three markers showed results warranting expert follow-up.
Biomarkers, including p53, Ki-67, and CK20, with classic and prognostic factors with recurrence and novel markers such as EN2 may provide a more accurate prediction of outcome compared with any single marker, improving risk stratification and clinical management of patients with BCa.
Interestingly, the sensitivity and specificity of combined detection with CK20 and FGFR1 for the differentiation between invasive and non-invasive stages of bladder cancer reached 97.5% and 92.5%, respectively.
The expression of cytokeratin 20 was always significantly higher in patients with bladder cancer when compared with that in both the tumor-free groups.
In the current study, we describe the isolation and characterization of a tumor-initiating cell (T-IC) subpopulation in primary human bladder cancer, based on the expression of markers similar to that of normal bladder basal cells (Lineage-CD44(+)CK5(+)CK20(-)).
Dysregulation of CK20 expression is an early event in the carcinogenesis of papillary noninvasive bladder cancer, but occurs later than FGFR3 mutations.
In addition, four of the differentially expressed genes in microarrays related to bladder cancer (KRT20, IGF2, GSN, and CCL2) were analyzed in 36 tumoural and 14 control BW samples by quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR).
For control purposes, CK-20 expression was examined in cells of 1) bladder carcinoma tumors of 5 patients, 2) blood of either patients with bladder carcinoma (n = 5) or healthy controls (n = 5), and 3) three different cell lines.
The reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction method was used to determine expression of CK-20 in cells separated from urine of patients with bladder carcinoma.