Altered expression of survivin, Fas and FasL contributed to cervical cancer development and metastasis.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the expression of apoptosis-related genes and their correlation with prognosis in cervical cancer patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The expressions of Survivin, Fas and FasL in tissues of cervical cancer, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), chronic cervicitis and normal cervix wer detected by immunohistochemical staining, and the relationship between the expression of Survivin, Fas and FasL and clinical pathologic characteristics of cervical cancer was correlation analysis. RESULTS: The positive expression rates of Survivin and FasL in cervical cancer tissues were significantly higher than those in tissues of normal cervix, chronic cervicitis and CIN (p < 0.05), but lower positive expression rate of Fas was observed in cervical cancer tissues when compared with that in normal cervix, chronic cervicitis and CIN tissues (p < 0.05). The expression of Survivin was significantly correlated with clinical staging and lymph node metastases of cervical cancer (p < 0.05). The expression of FasL was correlated with lymph node metastases, clinical staging and pathological grading of cervical cancer (p < 0.05). The expression of Survivin was negatively correlated with that of Fas (r = -0.517, p < 0.01), but positively correlated with that of FasL (r = 0.381, p < 0.01) in tissues of cervical cancer. CONCLUSIONS: The up-regulated expression of Survivin and FasL and down-regulated expression of Fas may be involved in the carcinogenesis and development of cervical cancer. The expression of FasL may be one of the prediction indexes for disease progression and prognosis in cervical cancer.