ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To examine the expression of cortactin in epithelial ovarian cancer, and discuss the relationship between the expression of cortactin and the clinical pathology characteristics in epithelial ovarian cancer, as well as clinical significance. METHODS: The expression of cortactin was detected using real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR and immunohistochemical SP method in epithelial ovarian cancer. RESULTS: (1) The relative content of cortactin mRNA in epithelial ovarian cancer tissue was higher than that in benign control tissue, and expression was related to histological classification and FIGO stage. (2) Cortactin protein was localized in the cytoplasm and membrane of tumor cells. The positive rate of cortactin was 73.3 % in epithelial ovarian cancer, and the rate of cortactin expression was related to histological classification. (3) The average survival period of epithelial ovarian cancer patients with positive expression of cortactin was 19.5 ± 1.2 months (95 % CI 14.6-21.4 months), compared with 34.5 ± 4.3 months in the negative expression group (95 % CI 22.1-25.9 months). Univariate survival analysis showed that: negative expression of cortactin had a significant survival advantage (χ (2) = 5.739, P = 0.017). A cox regression model for multivariate analysis revealed that cortactin was an independent prognostic factor for epithelial ovarian cancer (P = 0.001; RR = 6.452, 95 % CI 2.289-7.112). CONCLUSIONS: Negative expression of cortactin was an independent prognostic factor and had a survival advantage. This suggested that cells with poor differentiation showed increasing motility. Cortactin is closely related to poor prognosis.