Expression of the tumor suppressor gene p16, and lymph node metastasis in patients with ovarian cancer.

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between the expression of p16, a tumor suppressor gene, and lymph node metastasis, as well as patient prognosis, in cases with ovarian cancer. SKOV-3, an ovarian cancer cell line, and IOSE80, a normal human ovarian cell line, were selected for testing. Western blot analysis was used to detect the p16 expression in ovarian cell culture samples. In the study, 20 cases with normal ovarian tissue and 64 cases with ovarian cancer tissue, including 38 cases with lymph node metastasis and 26 cases without lymph node metastasis, were also selected for testing. Immunohistochemical techniques were used to detect the expression of p16 protein in ovarian tissue samples. The influence of p16 protein on SKOV-3 cell invasion ability was studied using p16 gene high-expression vector transfection. Clinical and prognosis data were summarized and the influence of p16 on patient prognosis was analyzed through Kaplan-Meier single-factor survival analysis. The results showed that p16 expression in SKOV-3 was decreased significantly compared with that in IOSE80. The positive rate of p16 protein expression in ovarian cancer tissue was notably decreased compared with that in normal ovarian tissue. The positive rate of p16 protein expression in ovarian cancer tissue of patients with lymph node metastasis was significantly decreased compared with that of patients without lymph node metastasis. Therefore, transfection of the p16 gene significantly inhibited the protein expression and invasion ability of p16 in SKOV-3. Correlation analyses between p16 and survival prognosis demonstrated that lower expression of p16 was negatively correlated with the prognosis of patients with ovarian cancer. Overall, the abnormal expression of p16 in ovarian cancer is associated with an increased invasion ability of ovarian cancer and the lower expression of p16 in tissue samples indicates a poor prognosis in patients with ovarian cancer.