摘要
Objective: The aim of this study was to approach the relationship between the expression of human kallikrein 6 (hK6) in ovarian neoplasm and the clinicopathologic variables and prognosis for finding a new tumor marker for ovarian cancer. Methods: Through immunohistochemistry to examine the expression of hK6 in 19 cases with benign, 11 cases with borderline and 45 cases with malignant ovarian neoplasms and statistically analyzed whether the expression of hK6 correlated with the clinicopathologic variables and prognosis in patients with ovarian cancer. Results: The positive rate of hK6 in ovarian cancer tissues (60.0%) was significantly higher than that in the benign (15.8%) and borderline (27.3%) ovarian neoplasm tissues (P < 0.01). The expression of hK6 in low-grade ovarian cancer tissues was higher than that in high-grade (68.4% vs 14.3%; P < 0.05); hK6 in late–stage (stage III) was more frequently expressed than that in early-stage (stage I or II) (76.7% vs 26.7%; P < 0.01); and it significantly higher in ovarian carcinomas with lymph node metastases than those without lymph node metastases (77.8% vs 33.3%; P < 0.01 ); moreover, the expression of hK6 in the cancer tissues that the patients died or their pathogenetic condition recurred or their tumor metastasized within 3 years after surgery was higher (75.0%) than that in the cancer tissues that the pathogenetic condition of the patients was stable (42.9%; P < 0.05). Conclusion: The expression of hK6 in ovarian cancer tissues was higher than that in the benign and borderline ovarian neoplasm tissues, and high hK6 expression correlated with late–stage, low-grade, node metastasis and poor prognosis of patients. hK6 could potentially be a novel tumor marker for ovarian cancer that can predict the prognosis of the patients.
