HTERT and IGFIR protein expression as possible biomarkers and molecular targets in cervical cancer

Abstract

Bockground: The expression of the hTERT protein was studied in chronic cervicitis, intraepithelial neoplasms, and invasive cervical cancer in different studies. An increase in hTERT expression as cervical disease progresses was evidenced. This increase in hTERT expression may be due to the action of high-risk HPVs. IGF1R was previously described as a predictive biomarker of tumor aggressiveness in cervical cancer, through hypoxia-mediated phenomenon. The increasing expression reported between pre-neoplastic and neoplastic tissues suggested that IGF1R might play an early and key role in invasive cancer development. For several years our team research has studied the modulation of genes and proteins such as IGF1R, hTERT (status methylation and protein expression) among other and the presence of HPV in cervical cancer and response to treatment. The results of our studies showed that response to treatment, gene expression and protein expression in the presence of high-risk HPV and variants of HPV-16 were linked. Through these studies we contributed to the identification of predictive and prognostic biomarkers. The aim of the present study was to retrospectively report the detection of hTERT protein expression, IGFIR protein expresión and HPV genotype in patients with cervical cáncer and assess the relationship of hTERT protein expression with clinicopathological characteristics (age, size tumoral, stage) including response to treatment and IGF1R protein expression.