Abstract
Cortactin, fascin-1 and EGFR are recognized as important factors in tumor progression. We tested the hypothesis that cortactin, fascin-1 and EGFR expression correlates with clinicopathological parameters of the four most common ovarian surface epithelial carcinomas – serous cystadenocarcinoma, mucinous cystadenocarcinoma, endometrioid adenocarcinoma, and clear cell carcinoma. Immunohistochemical analysis of cortactin, fascin-1 and EGFR was performed using tissue microarrays of 172 specimens comprising 69 serous cystadenocarcinomas, 44 mucinous cystadenocarcinomas, 45 endometrioid adenocarcinomas and 14 clear cell carcinomas. All ovarian carcinomas showed significant expression of cortactin, fascin-1 and EGFR in staining intensity, tumor percentages and immunostaining scores. In addition, higher immunostaining scores of fascin-1 correlated with more advanced cancer stages (TNM), poorer histological differentiation and poorer survival rate of mucinous cystadenocarcinoma. Similarly, higher immunostaining scores of cortactin correlated with T stages and histological differentiation of serous cystadenocarcinoma. The immunostaining scores of EGFR did not correlate with TNM stages, tumor differentiation or prognosis in the four ovarian surface epithelial carcinomas. Our findings suggest that cortactin and fascin-1 may serve as good biomarkers in evaluating aggressiveness of ovarian serous and mucinous cystadenocarcinoma. And the pharmacological inhibitors of fascin-1 activity may slow down tumor progression and prolong survival time in patients with mucinous cystadenocarcinoma.
Highlights
Cancer of the ovary represents about 30% of all cancers of the female genital organs
Immunoscores of fascin-1 correlate with histological grades and clinical stages of mucinous cystadenocarcinoma
Among 172 ovarian tumors, fascin-1 immunostaining scores were significantly higher in the four ovarian epithelial carcinomas (73 ± 10 for serous cystadenocarcinoma; 26 ± 7 for mucinous cystadenocarcinoma; 63 ± 13 for endometrioid adenocarcinoma and 35 ± 12 for clear cell carcinoma; all P values
Summary
Cancer of the ovary represents about 30% of all cancers of the female genital organs. In developed countries ovarian cancer is about as common as cancers of the corpus uteri (35%) and invasive cancer of the cervix (27%). Migration of tumor cells outside the ovarian capsule accounts for a significant percentage of treatment failures in patients with ovarian malignancies [7,18,27] and degradation of basement membrane by matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) is one of the most critical steps in various stages of tumor disease progression, including tumor angiogenesis, tumor growth, as well as local invasion and subsequent distant metastasis. Cancer cells produced more MMP-2, and MMP-9 and had the poorest prognosis [10].
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