Objective: To examine glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78; a major molecular chaperone at the endoplasmic reticulum, strongly expressed in several tumours) expression in urothelial carcinoma (UC) of the upper urinary tract (UUT) and to evaluate the diagnostic and progressive importance of GRP78 expression in UC-UUT.
Patients and methods: We investigated GRP78 expression (using immunohistochemistry) in 126 UC-UUTs to assess its relevance to progression. GRP78 overexpression was recognised in 23 (18.3%) of tumour samples.
Results: There was no association between GRP78 overexpression and clinicopathological findings, except for an association with low grade in invasive tumours. GRP78 overexpression significantly improved the disease-free survival rate in all patients (according to univariate and multivariate analyses), but did not alter the overall survival rate.
Conclusion: The detection of GRP78 overexpression would appear to provide valuable information for the prognosis of UC-UUT.