Prognostic value and difeerences among P53, BCL-2, PCNA, GLUT-1, E-Cadherin in benign, borderline and malignant serous and mucinous ovarian tumors

SUMMARYIn the present study, immunohistochemical expression of p53, bcl-2, PCNA, E-Cadherin was examined in surgical material of 60 cases with ovarian primary serous and mucinous tumor. Besides differences in expression among benign, borderline and malign groups, association with prognostic factors such as stage, grade, and peritoneal cytology was investigated in the malign group. Furthermore, relation between these indicators and survival of patients was assessed as well.From benign lesions towards malign lesions, increase of p53, PCNA and GLUT-1 positive cases was found statistically significant (p=0,03, p=0,002, p=0,001). Contrary to these indicators, from benign lesions towards malign lesions a statistically significant decrease in cases positively stained with bcl-2 drew attention (p=0,01).As the stage advanced, among carcinoma cases an increase was observed in the number of p53, PCNA and GLUT-1 positive cases and this increase was found statistically significant (p=0,01, p=0,004, p=0,014). No significant statistical difference was found between the phase and E-Cadherin and bcl-2 (p=0,46, p=0,78). No statistically significant relation could be established between prognostic factors like grade, peritoneal cytology and any of the immunohistochemical indicators used in this study.These results indicated the importance of proliferation/apoptosis imbalance in ovarian carcinogenesis. The demand for energy was found important in tumor development and in this aspect GLUT-1 was considered to contribute to malign transformation. Striking in this study, bcl-2, indicator for worse prognosis in some cases and for good prognosis in others, decreased from benign lesions towards malign lesions in ovarian tumors. This finding made us think that in ovarian carcinogenesis the apoptosis inhibitor bcl-2 may act with other mechanisms.Our findings indicated p53, PCNA and GLUT-1 as strong indicators of biological potential of ovarian cancer and useful in the assessment of aggressive progress.