Expression and clinical significance of B7H3 in neuroblastoma tissues

Abstract

Objective To investigate the expression of B7H3 in neuroblastoma (NB) tissues and its relationship between clinical characteristics and prognosis of patients. Methods The clinical data and pathological wax of 100 cases with neuroblastoma admitted from January 2000 to December 2015 in Sun Yet-Sen University Cancer Center were collected.The expression of B7H3 in tumor tissues was detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and then the expression of B7H3 and its relation to pathological parameters and survival rate of patients were analyzed. Results (1) The positive rates of B7H3 in tumor tissues were 79% (79/100 cases), of which 37 were weak positive, 31 were mode-rate positive, 11 were strong positive, 58%(58/100 cases) showed low expression and 42%(42/100 cases) showed high expression.(2)The positive rate of B7H3 was positively correlated with the risk stratification, age, stage, primary site and N-MYC gene status (r=0.621, 0.350, 0.730, 0.224, 0.335; all P<0.05). (3)The high expression rates of B7H3 were positively correlated with the risk, stage, N-MYC gene status and tumor size (r=0.177, 0.016, 0.175, 0.284; all P<0.05). (4)B7H3 negative and positive 4-year event free survival (EFS) rates of 100 patients were 89.5% and 19.9% (χ2=31.260, P<0.001), 4-year overall survival(OS) rates were 94.7% and 48.3% (χ2=20.212, P<0.001), for 33 non-high-risk patients, B7H3 negative and positive 4-year EFS rates were 100.0% and 47.3% (χ2=8.760, P=0.003), and 4-year OS rates were 100.0% and 93.8% (χ2=1.063, P=0.003), respectively.Sixty-seven high-risk patients with B7H3 negative and positive 4-year EFS were 50.0% and 15.4% (χ2=4.093, P=0.043), 4-year OS were 75.0% and 42.0%, respectively (χ2=1.872, P=0.171). (5)The 4-year EFS rates of 100 patients with B7H3 low expression and high expression were 41.8% and 27.1% (χ2=3.801, P=0.051), and 4-year OS rates were 58.6% and 63.8% (χ2=0.111, P=0.739), respectively.The 4-year EFS and OS rates for 33 non-high-risk patients with B7H3 low expression and high expression were 94.7% and 44.2% (χ2=9.122, P=0.003), 100.0% and 90.9% (χ2=2.000, P=0.157), respectively.The 4-year EFS and OS rates of 67 high-risk patients with high expression and low expression of B7H3 were 13.9% and 22.1% (χ2=0.061, P=0.805), 36.3% and 57.7%(χ2=2.060, P=0.151), respectively.(6)Multivariate analysis showed that OS and EFS in B7H3 positive patients were lower than those in B7H3 negative patients[RR 95%CI: 28.110 (2.430-325.148); P=0.008; RR 95%CI: 12.834 (2.669-61.715), P=0.001]. Conclusions The positive rate of B7H3 in neuroblastoma is high, and the expression level of B7H3 is closely related to the clinical characteristics of the patients.Positive B7H3 in tumor tissues is an independent poor prognostic factor.B7H3 may be one of the new prognostic indicators for NB. Key words: Neuroblastoma; B7H3; Prognosis