In Taiwan, Transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the bladder is the most common malignancy of genitourinary tract, and the most common cause of death of all genitourinary tumors. Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) in kidney account for about 2% of all new cancer cases worldwide and 1199 deaths expected in 2005 in Taiwan. Renal cell carcinoma occurs about twice as often in men as in women. Thrombomodulin (TM) was first described as an integral component of haemostatic pathway in 1981. TM interacts with thrombin to from a high-affinity complex that inhibits thrombin activity and accelerates protein C activation. TM was also suggested identified as a marker of invasive malignancy in vascular tumors. E-cadherin is an adhesion molecule that preserves epithelial structural integrity and whose loss denotes enhanced invasive potential of cancers in many tissue types. In an analogous fashion, loss of TM express is associated with a poor prognosis. In study, we used immunohistochemistry to evaluate whether TM and E-cadherin act as biomarkers for prognosis upperurinary tract carcinoma. We analyzed 11 cases of upper urinary tract carcinoma, and the results show that patients have lower TM or E-cadherin expression have poor prognosis.
