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Abstract
Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecological malignancy and the high mortality rate is associated with advanced-stage disease at the time of the diagnosis. In order to find new tools to make diagnosis of Epithelial Ovarian Cancer (EOC) at early stages we have analyzed the presence of specific HMGA2 mRNA in the plasma of patients affected by this neoplasm. HMGA2 overexpression represents a feature of several malignances including ovarian carcinomas. Notably, we detected HMGA2 specific mRNA in the plasma of 40 out 47 patients with EOC, but not in the plasma of healthy donors. All cases found positive for HMGA2 mRNA in the plasma showed HMGA2 protein expression in EOC tissues. Therefore, on the basis of these results, the analysis of circulating HMGA2 specific mRNA might be considered a very promising tool for the early diagnosis of EOC.
Highlights
Ovarian cancer has the highest mortality rate of all gynecologic neoplasms and is the fifth leading cause of female cancer death in western countries [1]
We have previously shown that HMGA2 overexpression positively correlated with the body mass index suggesting that the combined evaluation www.impactjournals.com/oncotarget of HMGA2 expression and obesity can be considered a marker of poor prognosis in patients affected by ovarian carcinoma [15]
HMGA2 mRNA was detected in the plasma of Epithelial Ovarian Cancer (EOC) patients but not in that of the healthy donors
Summary
Ovarian cancer has the highest mortality rate of all gynecologic neoplasms and is the fifth leading cause of female cancer death in western countries [1]. The rapid progression of ovarian cancer and the high mortality rate associated with advanced-stage disease underlines the need of identifying biomarkers that could allow to diagnose the disease in preclinical or presymptomatic phases. HMGA2 is a member of architectural chromatin High Mobility Group A (HMGA) protein family These proteins bind the minor groove of AT-rich DNA sequences through three short basic repeats, called ‘AT-hooks’, and are able to interact with several proteins including various transcription factors. Through these mechanism the HMGA proteins regulate the expression of several genes involved in a wide range of biological processes, such as cell growth, differentiation, apoptosis, and tumorigenesis [7,8,9]. We have previously shown that HMGA2 overexpression positively correlated with the body mass index suggesting that the combined evaluation www.impactjournals.com/oncotarget of HMGA2 expression and obesity can be considered a marker of poor prognosis in patients affected by ovarian carcinoma [15]
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