Study of CD117 Expression and Its Relationship with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia and Gleason Score in Prostatic Adenocarcinoma

Background and

Prostate cancer is the second cause of cancer-related death in men. Early diagnosis and identification of prognostic factors help to predict clinical outcome and select the most effective treatment protocol in each patient. The relationship between CD117 expression and various tumor prognoses has been identified and there is evidence for the role of this marker in prostate cancer pathogenesis. So, the aim of this study was to evaluate CD117 marker expression in prostate benign hyperplasia and adenocarcinoma, and to find its association with Gleason grade.

In this cross-sectional study, paraffin blocks of tissue samples obtained from 85 patients with prostatic benign hyperplasia and 78 patients with prostatic adenocarcinoma, who referred to Shahid Mostafa Khomeini hospital during 2018 to 2021, were immunohistochemically stained by anti-CD117 antibody. Membranous and cytoplasmic staining in more than 10% of epithelial tumor cells was considered as positive result.

Positive CD117 expression was found in 27.1% of prostatic benign hyperplasia and 50% of prostatic adenocarcinoma samples showed a statistically significant difference (P=0.003). There was no significant relationship between CD117 status expression and primary Gleason grade in prostatic adenocarcinoma samples (P=0.166); however, secondary Gleason grade and total Gleason score had a significant relationship with CD117 expression status (P=0.002 and P=0.017, respectively).

CD117 expression was higher in prostatic carcinoma compared to benign prostatic hyperplasia and its higher expression was associated with higher Gleason grade as one of the most important prognostic factors in prostatic carcinoma