Diagnostics of Tumor-Associated Macrophages and Resected Lymph Nodes in Bladder Cancer Patients After Radical Cystectomy

One of the main problems of oncourology is bladder cancer. The standard treatment for muscle-invasive bladder cancer is radical cystectomy with neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Unfortunately, radical treatment methods have significantly reduced effectiveness in the long term period. For this reason, research in the field of predicting survival can significantly improve long-term cancer outcomes. The determination of the levels of tumor-associated macrophages is of considerable scientific and clinical interest.

Objective. To evaluate the impact of expression levels of tumor-associated macrophages (CD68 and CD163) on survival rates in patients diagnosed with muscle-invasive bladder cancer after radical cystectomy.

Material and methods. The study was conducted at the Clinic of Bashkir State Medical University (Ufa, Russia) from May 1, 2021, to July 1, 2023. It included 66 patients with confirmed muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Following surgical treatment, histological and immunohistochemical analyses were performed to determine CD68 and CD163 expression levels. Survival analysis was conducted after 24 months, assessing overall survival (OS), tumor-specific survival (TSS), and recurrence-free survival (RFS) using Kaplan-Meier curves.

Results. The analysis revealed a statistically significant decrease in survival rates in groups with high CD68 and CD163 expression (p < 0.05). A significant correlation was also observed between elevated CD68 and CD163 levels (p < 0.05).

Conclusion. CD68 and CD163 may serve as independent prognostic markers for survival in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer after radical cystectomy.

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