PMID: 16525657Mar 10, 2006Paper

Alteration and clinical relevance of PTEN expression and its correlation with survivin expression in epithelial ovarian tumors

Oncology Reports
Li SuiM Tokuda

Abstract

The tumor suppressor PTEN, phosphatase and tensin homolog on chromosome 10, plays an essential role in regulating signaling pathways involved in cell growth and apoptosis and is inactivated in a wide variety of tumors. Survivin, a member of the inhibitor of apoptosis protein family (IAP), is associated with cell proliferation, and overexpressed in common human tumors. Both PTEN and survivin proteins can regulate cell cycle and apoptosis, but their biological effects are adverse. We have previously investigated the role of survivin expression in epithelial ovarian tumors. In this study, we evaluated the alteration and clinical relevance of PTEN expression and further assessed its correlation with survivin expression in epithelial ovarian tumors. Immunohistochemical analysis was performed in 103 cases of ovarian tumors, and 26 of the 103 cases were evaluated by Western blot analysis. PTEN expression was reduced from benign to malignant ovarian tumors (p=0.0003), and an inverse correlation between PTEN and survivin was found in benign, borderline, and malignant tumors (p=0.004, p=0.015 and p=0.0005, respectively). PTEN expression was significantly associated with tumor grade (p=0.001), histological subtype (p=0.037), ascites (p=0....Continue Reading

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Apoptosis in Cancer

Apoptosis is an important mechanism in cancer. By evading apoptosis, tumors can continue to grow without regulation and metastasize systemically. Many therapies are evaluating the use of pro-apoptotic activation to eliminate cancer growth. Here is the latest research on apoptosis in cancer.

Apoptosis

Apoptosis is a specific process that leads to programmed cell death through the activation of an evolutionary conserved intracellular pathway leading to pathognomic cellular changes distinct from cellular necrosis