title: SET complex in serous epithelial ovarian cancer.
abstract: With low cure rates but increasing diverse treatment options that provide variable remission times, ovarian cancer is increasingly being recognized as a chronic disease. This reality indicates the need for a better understanding of factors influencing disease progression. In a previous global analysis of gene expression, we identified genes differentially expressed when comparing serous epithelial ovarian tumors of low and high malignant potential (grade 0 vs grade 3). In this analysis, 4 out of 5 members of the SET complex, SET, APE1, NM23 and HMGB2, were highly expressed in invasive grade 3 tumors. To further investigate the expression of these genes and the fifth member of the SET complex (pp32), we performed immunohistochemistry, on a tissue array composed of 235 serous tumors of different grades and disease stages. A significant correlation between expression of all SET complex proteins and the tumor differentiation was observed (p < 0.05). When combining all tumors, overexpression of Nm23 (p = 0.04), Set (p = 0.004) and Ape1 (p = 0.004) was associated with the clinical stage of the disease. No marker by itself was associated with prognosis. The combination of a high level of Nm23 in the context of a low level of Set compared to all other combinations of these markers did confer a better prognosis (p = 0.03). When combined, high expression of Hmgb2 and low expression of Ape1 was also associated with patient prognosis (p = 0.05). These findings suggest that a strategy that sums the activities of different partners within a pathway may be more appropriate in designing nomograms for patient stratification.
authors.affiliation: Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM), Institut du cancer de Montréal, Montreal, Canada.
authors.forename: Véronique
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ouellet
authors.forename: Cécile
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Le Page
authors.forename: Marie-Claude
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Guyot
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lussier
authors.forename: Patricia N
authors.initials: PN
authors.lastname: Tonin
authors.forename: Diane M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Provencher
authors.forename: Anne-Marie
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Mes-Masson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone / Q000378:metabolism*; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D056488:Histone Chaperones; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D056488:Histone Chaperones; C513473:SET protein, human; D014157:Transcription Factors