Objective To investigate FoxO3 expression in bladder cancer and its correlation with clinicopathological features and prognosis.

Methods Bladder cancer and adjacent tissue specimens were collected from 111 patients with bladder cancer. FoxO3 expression was detected by RT-qPCR, immunohistochemistry and Western blot. The relationship between FoxO3 expression and clinicopathological features and prognosis of bladder cancer patients was investigated. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was performed on FoxO3, and Cox proportional hazards model was used to analyze the independent prognostic factors for bladder cancer.

Results The mRNA and protein expression of FoxO3 in bladder cancer tissues was down-regulated, compared with adjacent tissues (P < 0.05). The positive rate of FoxO3 protein in patients with lymph node metastasis was significantly lower than that in patients without lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05). The positive rate of FoxO3 protein was significantly lower in patients with Ti_s-T₁ superficial bladder cancer than that in patients with T₂-T₃ invasive bladder cancer; and it was also decreased in the patients at middle and high histological classification, compared with those at low histological classification (P < 0.05). The positive rate of FoxO3 was positively correlated with deterioration of bladder cancer (P < 0.05). The negative expression of FoxO3 and lymph node metastasis were considered as the risk factors for poor prognosis of bladder cancer patients.

Conclusion Low expression of FoxO3 is identified as an important regulator in bladder cancer. Negative FoxO3 expression is risk factor for poor prognosis of patients with bladder cancer.