Expression and clinical significance of apolipoprotein D in epithelial ovarian carcinomas.

OBJECTIVE

Apolipoprotein D is a protein component of the human plasma lipid transport system but is also associated with a more favorable prognosis in women with breast cancer. This retrospective study was undertaken to examine the tumoral expression of apolipoprotein D in epithelial ovarian cancer and to analyze the possible correlation with tumor and patient characteristics as well as androgen receptors and their prognostic significance.

METHODS

Immunohistochemical evaluation was used to examine apolipoprotein D expression in paraffin blocks from 68 epithelial ovarian carcinomas.

RESULTS

A total of 18 (26.4%) tumors stained positively. No significant correlation was found between apolipoprotein D expression and patient or tumor characteristics and androgen receptor status. However, apolipoprotein D expression was significantly associated with prognosis in patients with residual tumor greater than 1 cm. Thus, patients with apolipoprotein-D-negative tumors had a poorer overall survival than those with apolipoprotein-D-positive tumors (P = 0.039). In addition, multivariate analysis demonstrated that apolipoprotein D expression was an independent prognostic factor with initial tumor size in this group of patients (P = 0.005).

CONCLUSIONS

Our results led us to consider the existence of apolipoprotein D expression by a significative percentage of ovarian carcinomas, and this protein expression might be of clinical usefulness for identifying lesions with different evolution.