Elevated levels of Lewis y and integrin α5β1 correlate with chemotherapeutic drug resistance in epithelial ovarian carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE

To measure Lewis y and integrin α(5)β(1) expression in epithelial ovarian carcinoma and to correlate the levels of these molecules with ovarian carcinoma chemotherapy and prognosis.

METHODS

The study population included 34 ovarian carcinoma patients with chemotherapeutic drug-resistance, six partially drug-sensitive cases, and 52 drug-sensitive cases (92 total). Immunochemistry was used to determine expression of Lewis y antigen and integrin α(5)β(1) in ovarian carcinoma tissues, and correlation of these molecules with chemotherapy resistance was further investigated, Multi-factor logistic regression analysis was applied to investigate: age, surgical stage, grade, subtype of patient cases, metastasis of lymph nodes, residual tumor size, expression levels of Lewis y antigen and integrin α(5)β(1) correlation with ovarian carcinoma chemotherapy resistance.

RESULTS

The expression rates of Lewis y antigen and integrins α(5) and β(1) were significantly greater in the drug-resistant group (91.17%, 85.29%, 88.24%) than the partially sensitive (50.00%, 33.33%, 50.00%) or sensitive groups (61.54%, 57.69%, 55.77%). Binary logistic regression analysis revealed that surgical stage, residual tumor size, and expression of integrin α(5) and Lewis y in ovarian carcinoma tissues were independent risk factors for chemotherapeutic drug resistance.

CONCLUSIONS

Overexpression of Lewis y and integrin α(5) are strong risk factors for chemotherapeutic drug resistance in ovarian carcinoma patients.