上皮性卵巢癌组织中YKL-40蛋白的表达及其临床意义

Expression and clinical significance of YKL-40 protein in epithelial ovarian carcinoma tissues

背景与目的:有研究发现,哺乳动物18糖蛋白家族中的YKL-40在上皮性卵巢癌等多种人类恶性肿瘤患者的血清中明显高表达,而且与部分肿瘤的恶性临床表型密切相关。本研究旨在探讨上皮性卵巢癌组织中YKL-40蛋白的表达及其临床意义。方法:采用免疫组化方法,检测YKL-40蛋白在86例上皮性卵巢癌组织芯片和20例正常卵巢组织中的表达;结合患者的临床和预后资料,分析卵巢癌中YKL-40蛋白表达的临床和预后价值及其与clusterin蛋白表达的相关性。结果:在正常卵巢组织中,YKL-40蛋白均呈阴性或低水平表达;在有效检测的74例上皮性卵巢癌标本中,有42例(56.8%)肿瘤出现YKL-40过度表达;且YKL-40蛋白表达与患者的临床分期有显著的相关性(P<0.0001)。YKL-40蛋白过度表达的上皮性卵巢癌患者的生存时间明显短于正常表达者(P=0.0389)。YKL-40蛋白表达与clusterin蛋白表达呈显著正相关性(P<0.0001)。结论:上皮性卵巢癌中YKL-40蛋白的表达可作为判断该患者预后的一种新分子标志物。

Background and Objective= Overexpression of YKL-40 has been detected in the serum of patients with various kinds of malignant tumors, including epithelial ovarian cancer. Moreover, YKL-40 expression is closely related to clinical phenotypes of some malignant tumors. This study was to investigate the expression and clinical significance of YKL-40 protein in epithelial ovarian cancer. Methods ： Protein expression of YKL-40 was detected by immunohistochemistry （IHC） using tissue microarrays （TMA） consisting of 86 specimens of epithelial ovarian cancer and 20 specimens of normal ovarian tissues. The correlations of YKL-40 expression to clinical features and prognosis, as welt as to the expression of clusterin protein in epithelial ovarian cancer were evaluated. Results： The expression of YKL-40 in all normal ovarian tissues was negative or low. In 74 evaluable specimens of epithelial ovarian cancer, overexpression of YKL-40 was detected in 42 cases （56.8%）. YKL-40 expression was closely associated with the clinical stage of epithelial ovarian cancer （P〈0.0001）. The overall survival time in patients with overexpression of YKL-40 was significantly shorter than that in patients with normal expression of YKL-40 （P=0.0389）. Moreover, the expression of YKL-40 protein was positively correlated with that of clusterin protein in epithelial ovarian cancer （P〈0.0001）. Conclusions：YKL-40 may be used as a new molecular marker to predict the prognosis of epithelial ovarian cancer.