Abstract

Cancer is a disease with abnormally proliferating cells and therefore proliferation rate is an important index for assessing tumour growth. Ki-67 is a commonly used proliferation marker considered to be an unfavourable prognostic marker in some tumors, while Thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) is an interesting proliferation marker because its levels are highly dependent on the growth stage of cells. To define the immunohistochemistry (IHC) expression of the TK1 in patients with ovarian serous adenocarcinoma and establish its potential role as a new biomarker for progressive disease, we analyzed the expression patterns of TK1 and Ki-67 in 109 patients with ovarian serous adenocarcinoma. TK1 and Ki-67 expression both showed a statistically significant correlation to MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) grade, but not to age, tumour size, lymph node metastasis or pathological TNM (pTNM) stages. TK1 expression, MDACC grades, pathological stages and lymph node metastasis correlate to relapse incident rate and overall survival, but Ki-67 does not. Although TK1 expression, MDACC grade, pTNM stage and lymph node metastasis significantly correlate to relapse in the Cox univariate analysis, in the multivariate Cox analysis only TK1 expression and lymph node metastasis were independent prognostic factors. The overall survival also correlated significantly to TK1 expression, MDACC grade, pTNM stage and lymph node metastasis in the Cox univariate analysis. However, only the pTNM stage was found to be an independent prognostic factor for survival in the Cox multivariate analysis. Therefore, though TK1 expression was an independent prognostic factor for relapse, but not for survival, TK1 is a more informative expression than Ki-67 for LI, relapse and overall survival rates. Thus, when TK1 is combined with MDACC grading, pTNM staging and lymph node metastasis, IHC determination of TK1 expression may improve the overall prediction of prognosis in patients with ovarian cancer.

Keywords

Ovarian serous adenocarcinoma; recurrence; thymidine kinase 1; Ki-67; prognosis; survival

Published in

Tumor Biology
2017, Volume: 39, number: 6
Publisher: SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD

SLU Authors

• Eriksson, Staffan

  • Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Sustainable Development Goals

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages


UKÄ Subject classification

Cancer and Oncology


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1010428317706479

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/92614