Expression of MAGE in Ovarian Tumor / 대한산부인과학회잡지

OBJECTIVE: Chemotherapy of ovarian cancer has a main role in the post-surgical treatment of ovarian cancer. However, relapsing patients are usually resistant to an additional chemotherapy. The development of immunotherapy is therefore needed to offer other preventive treatment modalities of ovarian cancer. MAGE encoding tumor-rejection antigens recognized by cytotoxic T lymphocytes are expressed at the mRNA level in various malignant tumors. We investigated the possibility of immunotherapy of ovarian cancer of MAGE expression. METHODS: To explore this possibility in ovarian tumors, we investigated the expression of MAGE 1-6 in 44 surgical samples of neoplastic and non-neoplastic tissues from ovaries using a MAGE 1-6 common primer by the nested reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (nested RT-PCR) and DNA sequencing after subcloning of PCR products. The material consisted of 5 cases of normal ovaries, 6 cases of non- neoplastic diseases (3 follicular cysts, 2 endometrioses, and 1 tuboovarian abscess), and 8 cases of benign serous, 4 cases of mucinous cystic tumor, 9 teratomas, and 4 cases of malignant serous tumor, 1 case of mucinous tumor, 2 cases of undifferentiated carcinoma, 2 borderline serous and 3 mucinous tumor. RESULTS: MAGE were expressed in 23% of benign ovarian tumors (5/21 cases). In contrast, no expression of these genes was observed in any of the 11 samples of normal and non-neoplastic ovarian tissues. All (92%) malignant tumors except one case of borderline malignant mucinous tumor showed MAGE 1-6 m RNA expression (P<0.05). The isotype of MAGE were confirmed in 5 cases for MAGE-3 (31.2%), 4 cases of MAGE-4 (25%), 2 cases of MAGE A1 (12.5%) and A 4b (12.5%), and one case of MAGE A2, 4a, combined A3 and A6, and A4 and 4b. CONCLUSION: We concluded that the expression of MAGE could be used as a target for tumor specific immunotherapy in ovarian cancer expressing MAGE.

Analysis of 32 cases of Krukenberg Tumors / 대한산부인과학회잡지

OBJECTIVE: The Krukenberg tumor is a metastatic or primary malignant ovarian tumor of the signet-ring cell type. The incidence of this tumor is higher in Korea than in western, among relatively young age group with poor prognosis. We evaluated the clinical characteristics of the Krukenberg tumor (metastasized from stomach cancer) and the relationship between the survival and clinical characteristics (including treatment modalities). METHODS: We analyzed 32 cases of the Krukenberg tumor metastasized from stomach cancer at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Kosin University Gospel Hospital. RESULTS: Among the 32 cases of the Krukenberg tumor, the age distribution ranged from 22 to 58 years, and the mean age was 38.8 years. The most common chief complaint was lower abdominal pain(11 cases). The majority of the stomach cancer showed serosal invasion and was signet-ring cell type in histology. The mean survival was 20 months. In patients with ascites(22 cases), the mean survival was 16 months in contrast to 25 months in ascites-free patients(10 cases). In the chemotherpy group, the mean survival was 23 months in contrast to 16 months in chemotherpy-free group. Also, longer mean survival(25months) was shown in cases with optimal surgery group than non-optimal surgery group. CONCLUSIONS: The survival of krukenberg tumor was shown to be related to the surigcal resectability and chemotherpy modalities.