High expression of B7-H3 and CD163 in cancer tissues indicates malignant clinicopathological status and poor prognosis of patients with urothelial cell carcinoma of the bladder.

The objective of the present study was to investigate the association of B7-H3 expression and cluster of differentiation (CD)163+ tumor-associated macrophage (TAM) infiltration with clinicopathological parameters in urothelial cell carcinoma of the bladder (UCB), and to investigate their potential conjoint effects on progression of UCB. B7-H3 expression and CD163+ TAM infiltration in tumor specimens from 134 consecutive patients that underwent radical cystectomy for UCB were tested using immunohistochemistry, followed by statistical analysis. In these 134 patients, B7-H3 expression and CD163+ TAM infiltration in the bladder carcinoma tissues were significantly associated with an increased ratio of vascular invasion (P=0.009; P=0.012) and distant metastasis (P=0.015; P=0.038); however, they were not associated with gender, age, pathologic grade, tumor stage, recurrence or lymphatic metastasis. The results of χ2 test analysis indicated that CD163+ TAM infiltration and B7-H3 expression were positively correlated (χ2=20.714; P<0.001). Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) rates were significantly worsened by high B7-H3 expression (P=0.002; P=0.020). However, CD163+ TAM infiltration was not associated with OS or PFS rate. Notably, the OS and PFS rates in patients with high B7-H3 expression or high CD163+ TAM infiltration were significantly poorer than the patients with low B7-H3 expression (P<0.001; P<0.001) or low CD163+ TAM infiltration (P=0.022; P=0.017) in the subgroup of 115 patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer. The results of the present study indicate that B7-H3 expression level could be used as an independent prognostic indicator following radical cystectomy for UCB and patients with high B7-H3 expression and high CD163+ TAM infiltration experience a poorer prognosis.