Screening for genes or markers relevant to
bladder cancer (BC)
tumorigenesis and progression is of vital clinical significance. The present study used reverse-transcription quantitative PCR reaction assays to examine the expression of
mRNA encoding
Rho GTPase-activating protein 9 (ARHGAP9) in BC tissue samples and to determine whether ARHGAP9 is an independent prognostic
biomarker for non-muscle invasive BC (
NMIBC) and muscle invasive BC (MIBC). The results revealed that the downregulation of ARHGAP9 expression in the tissue of patients with
NMIBC or MIBC was significantly associated with a poor prognosis. In patients with
NMIBC, a high expression of ARHGAP9 was significantly associated with prolonged recurrence-free survival, whereas in MIBC patients, it was significantly associated with an increased progression-free and
cancer-specific survival. The risk of
cancer-specific death was 2.923 times higher (95% confidence interval, 1.192-7.163) when ARHGAP9 levels were decreased. In conclusion, lower expressions of ARHGAP9 correlated with BC prognosis, indicating that it may be a useful marker for guiding treatment application.