title: High visfatin expression predicts poor prognosis of upper tract urothelial carcinoma patients.
abstract: Visfatin, a newly discovered adipocytokine, is a pro-inflammatory cytokine. This study aimed to evaluate the predictive value of visfatin on prognosis of patients with upper tract urothelial carcinoma. One-hundred and five patients (median age=64, range=24-84 years) were included in this study. Visfatin expression in upper tract urothelial carcinoma tissues was analyzed by immunohistochemistry. Visfatin expression was correlated with clinicopathologic variables using the χ(2) test. The prognostic value of visfatin for recurrence-free and cancer-specific survival was evaluated by Kaplan-Meier estimates, and the significance of differences between curves was evaluated by the log-rank test. Cox regression model was also used to evaluate the hazard ratios of visfatin on survival. High visfatin expression in upper tract urothelial carcinoma tissues was significantly correlated with tumor stage (P=0.001), grade (P=0.007) and p53 expression (P=0.07). High visfatin expression was associated with poor recurrence-free and cancer-specific survival. Cox regression analysis also revealed that visfatin is an independent predictor of recurrence-free (HR=3.22, P=0.009) and cancer-specific survival (HR=5.74, P=0.023). Our findings indicated that higher visfatin expression is a potential biomarker to predict patient survival. Further study is necessary to investigate the role of visfatin in the carcinogenesis of upper tract urothelial carcinoma.
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung, Taiwan ; Department of Urology, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung, Taiwan ; Department of Urology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital Kaohsiung, Taiwan ; Center for Stem Cell Research, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Hung-Lung
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Ke
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung, Taiwan ; Department of Urology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Hui-Hui
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung, Taiwan ; Department of Urology, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung, Taiwan ; Department of Urology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital Kaohsiung, Taiwan ; Department of Urology, Ministry of Health and Welfare Pingtung Hospital Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Wei-Ming
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung, Taiwan ; Department of Urology, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung, Taiwan ; Department of Urology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital Kaohsiung, Taiwan ; Department of Urology, Kaohsiung Municipal Ta-Tung Hospital Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Ching-Chia
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung, Taiwan ; Department of Microbiology, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Lin-Li
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Translational Research Center, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung, Taiwan ; Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yi-Chen
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung, Taiwan ; Department of Urology, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung, Taiwan ; Department of Urology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital Kaohsiung, Taiwan ; Center for Infectious Disease and Cancer Research, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chun-Nung
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung, Taiwan ; Department of Urology, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung, Taiwan ; Department of Urology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital Kaohsiung, Taiwan ; Center for Stem Cell Research, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung, Taiwan ; Department of Urology, Kaohsiung Municipal Ta-Tung Hospital Kaohsiung, Taiwan ; Center for Infectious Disease and Cancer Research, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Wen-Jeng
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Wu
keywords: Nampt/PBEF/visfatin; immunohistochemistry; prognosis; survival; upper tract urothelial carcinoma