Clinical significance of α-catenin, collagen IV, and Ki-67 expression in epithelial ovarian cancer

Purpose: To analyze alpha-catenin and collagen IV expression in epithelial ovarian cancer with special reference to their prognostic significance and correlations with clinical and pathologic characteristics, as well as cell proliferation marker Ki-67. Patients and Methods: alpha-Catenin, collagen IV, and Ki-67 expression was immunohistochemically analyzed in paraffin-embedded specimens of 316 patients with epithelial ovarian cancer. Results: alpha-Catenin and collagen IV expression was not interrelated or related to International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage or proliferation marker Ki-67. alpha-Catenin expression was reduced (< 100%) in 50% of primary tumors. Reduced alpha-catenin and collagen IV expression war directly related to high histologic grade (P < .001). In both univariate and multivariate analyses, Ki-67 proliferation significantly predicted overall survival, In the subset of 86 patients with stage I tumor a reduced (< 100%) alpha-catenin expression approached statistical significance as a negative prognostic factor (P = .035) and retained its statistical significance in the multivariate analysis (P = .025). The low (< 30%) expression of alpha-catenin (n = 10) was a sign of inferior survival as compared with normal expression in both the univariate (P = .0107) and multivariate analyses (P = .0105). Conclusion: alpha-Catenin expression seems to be a useful marker of those FIGO stage I tumors likely to run a less favorable course. The high cell proliferative activity was associated with poor survival. In the future, alpha-catenin and Ki-67 expression should be studied in a large prospective cohort that includes early-stage cancers to select the more aggressive tumors for intense early chemotherapy, J Clin Oncol 16:2591-2600. (C) 1998 by American Society of Clinical Oncology.