Spatz S, et al. – Purpose of this work to to evaluate a rationale for prostate–specific membrane antigen (PSMA)–based imaging and to investigate the prognostic role of vascular prostate–specific membrane antigen expression in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC). They serve a rationale for further establishment of PSMA–targeted imaging in clear–cell RCC (ccRCC). Remarkably, bhe prognostic role of PSMA was shown both at the protein and mRNA–levels (ccRCC and pRCC).

Methods

• Researchers enrolled 257 patients with RCC with a median follow-up exceeding 10.0 years.
• They detected PSMA expression on the tumor vessels by immunohistochemistry.
• They evaluated vascular expression of FOLH1-gene (PSMA) mRNA in clear-cell RCC (ccRCC) and papillary RCC (pRCC) applying the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data.

Results

• The data indicated endothelial PSMA protein expression was higher in ccRCC than in pRCC and chromophobe RCC.
• According to the data, higher grade, higher stage, metastatic and lethal ccRCCs displayed higher PSMA expression in tumor vessels.
• The results of this study displayed that in both univariate and multivariate analysis intensity of endothelial PSMA protein expression (positive vs. negative) was significantly correlated with overall survival.
• It was showed that TCGA-based analyses confirm the prognostic role of vascular expression of FOLH1-mRNA and support the utility of PSMA-based imaging in ccRCC, but not in pRCC.