Clinical significance of hormonal receptor status of malignant ovarian tumors.

OBJECTIVES: To study hormonal receptor status (HRS) of malignant ovarian tumors (MOT) and determine its clinical significance. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Retrospective analysis of case histories of 284 patients with MOT of different genesis of I-IV stages was carried out; immunohistochemical study of paraffin-embedded tissues. The HRS for serous, mucinous ovarian cancer (OC) and sex cord-stromal tumors (SCST) was studied. The phenotype of tumors by HRS in patients with serous OC was determined; overall and relapse-free survival in these patients was evaluated depending on the tumor HRS. RESULTS: Positive expression of ER has been registered in 66.4% of patients with serous OC, PR - in 63.4%, TR - in 53.0%; in patients with mucinous OC - 88.0; 84.0; 60.0%, respectively. Positive staining of cells of stroma-cellular tumors has been observed in 74.1% of patients for ER and 77.8% - for PR and TR. The highest number of patients with tumor phenotype ER+PR+TR+ has been observed in postmenopause - 52.4%, especially in late postmenopausal period - 39.0%. The lowest percentage of patients with mentioned phenotype has been marked in reproductive age - 20.7%. Most patients of reproductive period had phenotype of tumor ER-PR-TR- (35.1%), in late postmenopause this phenotype has been observed only in 16.2%. The patients with serous OC with the positive tumor HRS demonstrated the low indices of overall and relapse-free survival compared to the patients with receptor-negative tumors concerning all steroid hormones (р < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Positive HRS was registered in serous, mucinous OC and in SCST, high percentage of tumors with expression of all receptors of steroid hormones was observed at that. The highest frequency of tumors with positive HRS was recorded in patients with serous OC of late postmenopausal period. The patients with serous OC with receptor-positive tumor phenotype showed the rates of overall and relapse-free survival significantly lower compared to the patients with receptor-negative phenotype of OC. Positive HRS, the same as strong expression of TR in patients with serous OC, is a predictive factor of unfavorable course of tumor process. HRS of MOT can be regarded as the additional criterion for solution of a question concerning application of hormonal therapy as a component of complex treatment for the patients.

Quantitative analysis of SLC34A2 expression in different types of ovarian tumors.

AIM: The main purpose of this study was to estimate the SLC34A2 gene expression in normal ovary and different types of ovarian tumors. METHODS: We have investigated SLC34A2 gene expression level in papillary serous, endometrioid, unspecified adenocarcinomas, benign tumors, and normal ovarian tissues using real-time PCR analysis. Differences in gene expression were calculated as fold changes in gene expression in ovarian carcinomas and benign tumors compared to normal ovary. RESULTS: We have found that SLC34A2 gene was highly expressed in well-differentiated endometrioid and papillary serous ovarian carcinomas compared to low-differentiated endometrioid carcinomas, benign serous cystoadenomas and normal ovary. Analysis of SLC34A2 gene expression according to tumor differentiation level (poor- and well-differentiated) showed that SLC34A2 is up-regulated in well differentiated tumors. CONCLUSION: Upregulation of SLC34A2 gene expression in well-differentiated tumors may reflect cell differentiation processes during ovarian cancerogenesis and could serve as potential marker for ovarian cancer diagnosis and prognosis.

Vascular endothelial growth factor exression in uterine cervical cancer: correlation with clinicopathologic characteristics and survival.

AIM: This retrospective study was performed to determine the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in cervical cancer cells, and to examine its correlation with clinicopathologic characteristics and survival of patients. METHODS: Seventy-five paraffinembedded primary tumors were stained immunohistochemically for VEGF expression, which was analysed semiquantitatively. RESULTS: The significant correlation between VEGF expression and stages of disease, as well as pelvic lymph node metastasis was observed. There were determined a negative correlations between VEGF expression in tumor cells and both overall and disease-free survival. CONCLUSION: VEGF expression in human cervical cancer may be used as a diagnostic parameter in the clinic. Our results are in accordance with literature data showing association of VEGF overexpression in tumor with a poorer patient survival.

The study of phosphate transporter NAPI2B expression in different histological types of epithelial ovarian cancer.

UNLABELLED: The identification of markers that are specifically expressed by different histological types of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) may lead to the development of novel and more specific diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Sodium-dependent phosphate transporter NaPi2b (or MX35 ovarian cancer antigen) is a novel perspective marker of EOC. To date, the studies on NaPi2b/MX35 expression in different histological types of EOC are limited. AIM: To examine NaPi2b/MX35 expression in different histological types of epithelial ovarian tumors. METHODS: Here, we describe the analysis of NaPi2b expression in serous (n = 17), endometrioid (n = 8), and mucinous ovarian tumors (n = 3) by Western-blotting (WB), immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR. RESULTS: The results of immunohistochemical and WB analysis showed that benign and well-differentiated malignant papillary serous tumors as well as well-differentiated malignant endometriod tumors overexpress NaPi2b protein. However, no overexpression of NaPi2b was detected in benign and malignant mucinous tumors as well as in poorly differentiated endometriod tumors. Notably, the expression NaPi2b mRNA was detected in all investigated histological types of EOC. CONCLUSION: We have shown the differential expression profile of NaPi2b phosphate transporter at protein level in various histological types of epithelial ovarian cancer. This finding might facilitate the development of more effective approaches for diagnosis and treatment of this disease.