Department of Pathology, The Third Affiliated (Tumor) Hospital, Harbin, China.
Int J Gynecol Cancer. 2011 May;21(4):602-8. doi: 10.1097/IGC.0b013e3182145561.
Despite advances in chemotherapy and cytoreductive surgery, ovarian cancer remains the most lethal gynecological malignancy with a 5-year survival rate of 25% to 30% in advanced stage disease. Our purpose is to evaluate whether astrocyte elevated gene-1 (AEG-1) is a novel predictor of peritoneal dissemination and lymph node metastasis in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), which was not previously studied by others.
Through immunohistochemical and Western blot analysis, AEG-1 expression was evaluated in 25 normal ovarian and 157 EOC specimens. The relationship between AEG-1 expression and EOC metastasis was determined by univariate and multivariate analyses.
Western blotting analysis revealed that AEG-1 was overexpressed in metastatic tissues from patients with ovarian cancers. Immunohistochemistry results showed that 83 (95.4%) presented peritoneal dissemination; 41 (47.1%) had lymph node metastasis among 87 patients with AEG-1 overexpression. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses demonstrated that AEG-1 overexpression correlated with peritoneal dissemination and lymph node metastasis in EOC. We further found that the positive and specificity predictive value of AEG-1 staining were better for peritoneal metastasis, whereas the negative and sensitivity predictive value of AEG-1 staining were better for lymph node metastasis. The odds ratio of high-to-low expression for peritoneal dissemination was 8.541 (95% confidence interval, 2.561-37.461), and that for lymph node metastasis was 9.581 (95% confidence interval, 2.613-23.214).
The present findings indicate that AEG-1 is overexpressed in a great portion of EOC patients with peritoneal dissemination and/or lymph node metastasis and may be clinically useful for predicting metastasis in EOC. Our findings might provide some benefits for metastatic EOC patients in the clinic.
尽管化疗和细胞减灭术取得了进展，但卵巢癌仍然是最致命的妇科恶性肿瘤，晚期疾病的 5 年生存率为 25%至 30%。我们的目的是评估星形细胞上调基因-1（AEG-1）是否是上皮性卵巢癌（EOC）腹膜播散和淋巴结转移的新预测因子，这在以前的研究中尚未被研究过。
通过免疫组织化学和 Western blot 分析，评估了 25 例正常卵巢和 157 例 EOC 标本中的 AEG-1 表达。通过单变量和多变量分析确定 AEG-1 表达与 EOC 转移之间的关系。
Western blot 分析显示，AEG-1 在转移性卵巢癌患者的组织中过表达。免疫组织化学结果显示，在 87 例 AEG-1 过表达的患者中，有 83 例（95.4%）存在腹膜播散；有 41 例（47.1%）存在淋巴结转移。单变量和多变量逻辑回归分析表明，AEG-1 过表达与 EOC 的腹膜播散和淋巴结转移相关。我们进一步发现，AEG-1 染色的阳性和特异性预测值更适合腹膜转移，而 AEG-1 染色的阴性和敏感性预测值更适合淋巴结转移。腹膜播散高表达与低表达的优势比为 8.541（95%置信区间，2.561-37.461），淋巴结转移的优势比为 9.581（95%置信区间，2.613-23.214）。
本研究结果表明，AEG-1 在大部分有腹膜播散和/或淋巴结转移的 EOC 患者中过表达，可能对预测 EOC 转移具有临床意义。我们的发现可能为转移性 EOC 患者的临床治疗提供一些帮助。
