Alternative splicing variants of carbonic anhydrase IX in human non-small cell lung cancer.

In human cancers, carbonic anhydrase IX (CAIX) contributes to maintain intracellular and extracellular pH under hypoxic conditions, but also influences regulation of cell proliferation and tumor progression. CaIX was previously indicated as an independent prognostic marker in non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). Very recently a CAIX alternative splicing isoform, generating a transcript lacking of exons 8-9, was detected in cancer cells independently from the levels of hypoxia. This alternative splicing (AS) generates a truncated protein lacking the transmembrane region, the intracellular tail and the C-terminal of the catalytic domain and competes with the full-length (FL) isoform in the regulation of the extracellular pH, mainly in a mild hypoxic status. In the present study we measured the mRNA expression of FL and AS CAIX isoforms in 101 NSCLC and in paired not affected tissues. The two isoforms were coexpressed in all NSCLC and normal tissues but while AS mRNA was prevalent in normal tissues (66+/-3%), the FL isoform was higher in NSCLC (58+/-2%, p=0.001). FL mRNA, but not AS, was statistically increased in NSCLC (p=0.01) and showed a statistical association with lymphnode involvement (p=0.009) and tumor stage (p=0.04). Global survival analysis of cancer/related death showed that high levels of FL mRNA were predictive of unfavorable outcome (p<0.0001) and shorter disease-free survival (p<0.0001). Multivariate analysis indicated that FL is an independent prognostic factor for overall survival and higher levels of mRNA in NSCLC sensibly increase hazard ratio ( approximately sixfold). In conclusion, our results seems to indicate that, at least in NSCLC, FL CAIX is the most accurate surrogate of hypoxic stress and represents the only variant with a prognostic role. These data indicate the importance of a separate measurement of the two isoforms in cancer and the need of an accurate re-evaluation of most studies on the clinical role of CAIX in cancer diagnosis.