Over-expression of the overexpressed in lung cancer 1 is associated with poor prognosis in epithelial ovarian cancer.

BACKGROUND

The overexpressed in lung cancer 1 (OLC1), a novel tumor associated gene, is upregulated in several carcinomas. The purpose of this study was to determine whether increased expression of OLC1 is associated with epithelial ovarian carcinoma (EOC) that diagnosed in patients.

METHODS

OLC1 expression was assayed in 20 normal ovarian and 139 ovarian cancer's specimens by Western blotting and immunohistochemical staining (IHC). Univariate and multivariate analysis were performed to determine the association between OLC1 expression and prognosis.

RESULTS

Western blotting analysis demonstrated that OLC1 was overexpressed in ovarian cancers, and immunohistochemistry results revealed that 63 patients had increased level of OLC1. The 5-year overall survival (OS) rates of patients with high OLC1 expression and low OLC1 expression were 24.8% and 75.2%, respectively (hazard ratio: 21.43, 95% CI: 2.54, 7.12, P < 0.0001). The 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) rates were 30.1% for patients in the high-expression group and 69.9% for patients in the low OLC1 expression group (hazard ratio: 17.04, 95% CI: 0.33, 5.96, P < 0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS

OLC1 over-expression is an important factor in epithelial ovarian carcinoma prognosis and can be a potential biomarker for ovarian carcinoma.