Abstract
Purpose: To investigate the ferritin distribution in epithelial ovarian cancer patients according to the FIGO stage in the prognosis of epithelial ovarian cancer. Method: All ovarian cancer patients were divided into two groups according their FIGO stage. Benign ovarian tumor patients were analyzed as the control. Serum ferritin, serum iron, and other related medical index were detected by automatic instruments for all patients. In addition, ferritin heavy chain (FHC) and ferritin light chain (FLC) proteins were detected by immunohistochemical staining in 60 epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) patients and 30 benign ovarian tumor (BOT) patients, which were diagnosed in our department between 2011 and 2016. Results: The serum ferritin concentration was significantly higher in the EOC group than in the BOT group (172.56 ± 99.39 ng/mL vs 78.18 ± 43.06 ng/mL; p μmol/L vs 14.92 ± 6.36 μmol/L; p p p p p p p > 0.05). Conclusion: Patients showed an overexpression of ferritin and a downregulation of serum iron correlated with the prognosis of epithelial ovarian cancer, which may be a new target for diagnosis and treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer.
Highlights
Ferritin is a multimeric globular protein of approximately 450 kDa constituted by 24 subunits of the proteins ferritin heavy chain (FHC) and ferritin light chain (FLC), assembled in a nanocage with a central cavity where up to 4500 iron atoms can be stored [1]
Ferritin heavy chain (FHC) and ferritin light chain (FLC) proteins were detected by immunohistochemical staining in 60 epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) patients and 30 benign ovarian tumor (BOT) patients, which were diagnosed in our department between 2011 and 2016
Quantitative data of the FHC or FLC expression showed a significant increase in the average optical density in the benign ovarian tumor group compared with the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) I-II stage ovarian cancer group (p < 0.01 and p < 0.01, respectively) as well as in the FIGO I-II stage ovarian cancer group compared with the FIGO III-IV stage ovarian cancer group (p < 0.05 and p < 0.05, respectively)
Summary
Ferritin is a multimeric globular protein of approximately 450 kDa constituted by 24 subunits of the proteins ferritin heavy chain (FHC) and ferritin light chain (FLC), assembled in a nanocage with a central cavity where up to 4500 iron atoms can be stored [1]. Recent studies have shown that a high expression of ferritin plays an important role in tumor invasion, tumor growth, and chemotherapeutic drug resistance [1] [4]. Faniello et al (2011) found that cell proliferation, cell invasion, and protein expression were significantly reduced when the ferritin gene was silenced by proteomic analysis of MM07m melanoma cells. Observation of their tumor growth capacity in vivo, the injected with FHC-silenced MM07(m) cells mice showed a remarkable 4-fold reduction compared to those who received the FHC-unsilenced MM07(m) counterpart [7]
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