Expression of mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase kinase kinase 3 in early-stage cervical cancer and its clinical significance / 肿瘤研究与临床

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the clinical significance of expression of mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase kinase kinase 3 (MEKK3) in the early-stage cervical cancer. Methods Seventy-one patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and 92 patients with early-stage cervical cancer who underwent surgery in Shanxi Provincial Cancer Hospital from March to October 2010 were enrolled. In the same period, 30 normal cervical specimens from hysterectomy due to uterine fibroids were collected as normal controls. The expression of MEKK3 in all specimens was detected by immunohistochemistry and its clinical significance was analyzed. Theχ2 test was performed on the comparison of count data. Results The positive expression rate of MEKK3 was 13.33％ (4/30) in the normal control group, 28.57％(6/21) in the CINⅠgroup, 38.89％(7/18) in the CINⅡgroup, 56.25％(18/32) in the CIN Ⅲgroup and 70.65％(65/92) in the early-stage cervical cancer group. The differences of positive expression rates of MEKK3 in the normal control group, CIN group and early-stage cervical cancer group had statistical significance (χ2=36.870, P<0.05). Compared with the normal control group, the positive rates of MEKK3 in the CINⅢ group and early-stage cervical cancer group increased significantly (χ2 values were 12.458 and 30.251, both P<0.005). The positive rate of MEKK3 in the early-stage cervical cancer group was higher than that in the CIN Ⅰ group (χ2=12.964, P<0.005). The expression of MEKK3 in early-stage cervical cancer were related to histopathological differentiation and lymphatic metastasis (χ2 values were 6.832 and 4.404, both P< 0.05) rather than age, International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage, histopathological type, tumor diameter and infiltration depth (all P>0.05). Conclusion MEKK3 plays a role in the occurrence, development and prognosis of early-stage cervical cancer, and the detection of MEKK3 may help to assess the degree of early-stage cervical cancer.