High mucin 5AC expression predicts adverse postoperative recurrence and survival of patients with clear-cell renal cell carcinoma

BACKGROUND Mucin 5AC (MUC5AC), as a member of secreted/gel-forming mucin family, was frequently found to be abnormally expressed in inflammation or malignant diseases. However, the clinic pathologic features and prognostic values of MUC5AC in clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) have not been reported up to now. METHODS MUC5AC expression was analyzed by immunohistochemistry on tissue microarrays. Kaplan-Meier survival curves, Univariate and Multivariate Cox analysis and newly-established nomogram model were performed to evaluate the prognostic value. RESULTS MUC5AC expression was firstly found to be up-regulated in patients with ccRCC, positively associated with tumor size, pN stage, lymphovascular invasion, Fuhrman grade, rahbdoid differentiation, sarcomatoid features, tumor necrosis, ECOG-PS and recurrence. Furthermore, MUC5AC expression might be contributed to risk stratification of ccRCC patients with TNM stage III+IV or Fuhrman grade 3 or 4 for overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) analysis, and it was demonstrated to be negatively correlated with OS and RFS of ccRCC patients. What's more, MUC5AC was identified as a potential independent adverse prognostic factor; prediction accuracy of MUC5AC-based new nomogram model was drastically improved for OS and RFS of ccRCC patients. CONCLUSION MUC5AC is a promising independent adverse prognostic factor for ccRCC patients, it maybe conducive to postoperative risk stratification and guide treatment in the future.