Clinical Significance of BRAF and ZEB2 Expressions in Healthy Adjacent Tissue of Bladder Cancer

Numerous molecular changes are involved in the development andprogression of bladder cancer. Regular follow-up of patients is crucial due to the highrecurrence rate of bladder cancer. The aim of this study is to determine the role ofB-Raf proto-oncogene, serine/threonine kinase and ZEB2 expressions in onset andprogression of bladder cancer. We have also investigated their relationships topathological characteristics. We conducted this case-control study on bladder cancer and its healthyadjacent tissue, and normal bladder tissue from patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia.After extraction of total RNA and cDNA synthesis, quantitative expression analysis wasperformed in duplicate using real-time PCR. Changes in the gene expression werecalculated according to the 2(-ΔΔCt) equation. The products were confirmed by 1% agarosegel electrophoresis and sequenced by Bioneer Company. Data was analyzed using theSPSS software (version 16). There was significantly greater B-Raf proto-oncogene, serine/threoninekinase expression in 82% of bladder tumor samples compared to the adjacent tissues.In 91.1% of tumor samples, the gene expression was also significantly higher than healthybladder tissues from patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia. We observedoverexpression of B-Raf proto-oncogene, serine/threonine kinase in 61.7% of thehealthy margin tissue samples compared to healthy bladder tissues of patients with benignprostatic hyperplasia (P<0.001). Expression of ZEB2 in 52.9% of the bladder tumorsamples was significantly higher than healthy peripheral tissues. This increase wasobserved in 94.1% of tumor samples compared to healthy bladder tissues of patientswith benign prostatic hyperplasia (P<0.001). Pearson correlation coefficient showeda positive relationship between B-Raf proto-oncogene, serine/threonine kinase and ZEB2in cancerous samples (r = 0.75) and healthy margin tissue samples (r = 0.49). During the carcinogenesis process, molecular changes are seen inhealthy margin tissue. These molecular changes may be the reason for the highrecurrence rate of bladder cancer. B-Raf proto-oncogene, serine/threonine kinase canpotentially be a target cancer therapy in antisense technologies.