Expressions of osteopontin and B7-H4 in epithelial ovarian neoplasm and their significance

Abstract

Epithelial ovarian cancer involves a number of factors. Recent studies have shown that osteopontin (OPN) is related to the occurrence and development of a variety of tumors, but few studies are on ovarian cancer. B7-H4 is a newly identified tumor marker in ovarian cancer. This study explored the expression of OPN and B7-H4 and their clinical significance in epithelial ovarian tumors. The expression of OPN and B7-H4 in 15 cases of normal ovarian tissue, 20 of benign ovarian tumor tissue, 20 of borderline ovarian tumor tissue, and 40 of ovarian cancer tissue were detected by immunohistochemistry, and the relationship of OPN and B7-H4 expression to clinical and pathologic features of ovarian cancer was analyzed. The expression of OPN and B7-H4 were significantly higher in ovarian cancer than in borderline and benign tumors (P<0.05). The positive rates of OPN and B7-H4 were significantly higher in poorly differentiated ovarian cancer than in medium and highly differentiated ovarian cancer (P<0.05), and the levels of expression were significantly lower in tissue at stages I and III of ovarian cancer than in stages III and IV (P<0.05). The positive rate of OPN associated with a higher rate of lymph node metastasis (P<0.05), but did not relate to age and histologic type. The positive rate of B7-H4 were significantly higher in ovarian serous carcinoma than in the mucinous carcinoma (P<0.05), but did not relate to age and lymph node metastasis. The expression of OPN and B7-H4 increased in epithelial ovarian cancer, which could be referenced in the diagnosis of ovarian malignant tumors.