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=0.038), and residual disease (p=0.0006). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that the loss of PTEN expression was significantly associated with poor overall survival (p=0.021), and patients with PTEN(−)/survivin(+) expression had the worst prognosis among all phenotypes of PTEN/survivin expression (p=0.039). Our results suggest that the altered PTEN expression and its inverse correlation with survivin may be involved in the development and progression of ovarian tumors, and the combined detection of PTEN and survivin proteins might be more valuable in the evaluation of malignancy and prognosis in epithelial ovarian tumors.

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