Department of Reproductive Medicine, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong, China.
Department of Gynaecology, People's Hospital of Jining, Jining, Shandong, China.
Cancer Biomark. 2017 Dec 12;21(1):81-87. doi: 10.3233/CBM-170278.
Relaxin is a short circulating peptide hormone. The aim of this study was to understand the role of relaxin in progression of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) and to assess its diagnostic and prognostic significance.
A total of 124 patients with EOC, 46 patients with benign ovarian diseases, and 50 healthy controls were recruited. Serum levels of relaxin were determined by ELISA method. The relationship between serum relaxin level and each of the clinicopathological parameters was analyzed using the χ2 test. Survival curves were plotted using the Kaplan-Meier method. The statistical difference in survival between the different groups was compared using the log-rank test. Survival correlation with the prognostic factors was further investigated by multivariate analysis using the Cox proportional hazards model with backward stepwise likelihood ratio.
The results showed that serum relaxin level was significantly higher in patients with EOC than those with benign ovarian diseases and healthy controls (p< 0.01). Serum relaxin level was associated with FIGO stage, lymph node metastasis, tumor resectability, survival of the patients, chemotherapy and tumor recurrence (p< 0.05). Analysis using the Kaplan-meier method indicated that patients with high serum relaxin had significantly shorter overall survival time than those with low relaxin (p< 0.01). In a multivariate analysis along with clinical prognostic parameters, serum relaxin was identified as an independent adverse prognostic variable for survival.
These results indicated that serum relaxin may be a clinically useful indicator for diagnostic and prognostic evaluation in EOC patients.
松弛素是一种短循环肽激素。本研究旨在探讨松弛素在卵巢上皮性癌（EOC）进展中的作用，并评估其诊断和预后意义。
共招募了 124 例 EOC 患者、46 例良性卵巢疾病患者和 50 名健康对照者。采用 ELISA 法测定血清松弛素水平。采用卡方检验分析血清松弛素水平与各临床病理参数之间的关系。采用 Kaplan-Meier 法绘制生存曲线。采用对数秩检验比较不同组之间的生存差异。采用 Cox 比例风险模型进行多因素分析，采用向后逐步似然比法进一步探讨生存与预后因素的相关性。
结果显示，EOC 患者血清松弛素水平明显高于良性卵巢疾病患者和健康对照者（p<0.01）。血清松弛素水平与 FIGO 分期、淋巴结转移、肿瘤可切除性、患者生存、化疗和肿瘤复发有关（p<0.05）。Kaplan-Meier 分析表明，血清松弛素水平高的患者总生存时间明显短于松弛素水平低的患者（p<0.01）。在包括临床预后参数的多因素分析中，血清松弛素被确定为生存的独立不良预后因素。
这些结果表明，血清松弛素可能是 EOC 患者诊断和预后评估的一种有临床应用价值的指标。
