© 2004 European Society for Medical Oncology
Original Article |
Prognostic value of E-cadherin immunoexpression in patients with primary ovarian carcinomas
Departments of 1 Anatomy and Pathology and 2 Medical Oncology, Portuguese Institute of Oncology of Francisco Gentil, Centro Regional do Norte, Porto, Portugal
* Correspondence to: Dr C. Faleiro-Rodrigues or I. Macedo-Pinto, Instituto Português de Oncologia Francisco Gentil, Centro Regional do Norte, Departamento de Anatomia Patológica, Rua Dr António Bernardino de Almeida, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal. Tel: +351-22-5084000 ext. 5111; Fax: +351-22-5084001; Email: cristinafaleiro{at}mail.com
Purpose: To analyse the negative versus positive immunoexpression of E-cadherin in patients with primary ovarian carcinomas, and determine its significance in relation to clinicopathological features, overall and recurrence-free survival (RFS).
Patients and methods: The protein expression of E-cadherin was immunohistochemically evaluated in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded samples in 104 patients with primary ovarian carcinomas. The clinicopathological factors studied were age, FIGO staging, histological type, tumour differentiation, the appearance of the ovarian capsule, peritoneal implants and residual tumour after cytoreductive surgery. Overall survival and RFS were evaluated using the Kaplan–Meier method, and multivariate analysis was completed using the Cox regression model.
Results: Of the 104 carcinomas, negative E-cadherin immunoexpression was observed in seven (7%) cases, and positive immunoexpression in 97 (93%). E-cadherin categorised into negative versus positive expression did not associate with any of the established clinicopathological parameters. However, negative E-cadherin expression significantly predicted a poorer overall survival when compared with positive expression (P=0.006). In the multivariate analyses, negative E-cadherin and the presence of residual tumour after cytoreductive surgery were independent prognostic factors for survival (P=0.014 and P=0.034, respectively).
Conclusions: The presence of residual tumour after primary cytoreductive surgery and negative E-cadherin expression seem to be useful markers in patients with ovarian carcinomas likely to have an unfavourable clinical outcome. The assessment of E-cadherin immunoreactivity may be a useful prognostic indicator in ovarian cancer, complementary to established prognostic factors.
Key words: cell-to-cell adhesion, epithelial cadherin, immunohistochemistry
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