Circulating haptoglobin is an independent prognostic factor in the sera of patients with epithelial ovarian cancer.
OBJECTIVE
This study was conducted to evaluate the prognostic significance of haptoglobin levels in the overall survival of patients presenting with various stages of epithelial ovarian cancer.


METHODS
We employed an in-house sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method to determine the concentrations of preoperative haptoglobin and C-reactive protein (CRP) in sera samples obtained from 66 malignant tumors, 60 benign tumors, and 10 normal healthy women.


RESULTS
Levels of serum haptoglobin significantly correlated with tumor type (P < .001) and International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage (P < .05). A significant correlation was observed between clinical stage and patient survival (r = 5.99, P = .026). Our data also indicated that elevated serum haptoglobin levels were associated with poor outcome for overall survival using both univariate and multivariate analyses (P = .048 and P = .036 respectively). Using Pearson's correlation, we have noted that serum CRP concentrations significantly correlated with haptoglobin levels (r(2) = 0.22, P < .001). Immunohistochemical findings and Western blot analyses were compatible with sera levels of haptoglobin in which a higher intensity of staining occurred in late-stage epithelial ovarian cancers.


CONCLUSIONS
This study provides evidence that preoperative serum levels of haptoglobin could serve as an independent prognostic factor in patients presenting with epithelial ovarian cancer.
Zhao
Changqing
C
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
Annamalai
Loganath
L
Guo
Changfa
C
Kothandaraman
Narasimhan
N
Koh
Stephen Chee Liang
SC
Zhang
Huoming
H
Biswas
Arijit
A
Choolani
Mahesh
M
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000032:analysis; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006242:Haptoglobins / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009375:Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial / Q000097:blood* / Q000401:mortality; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
D006242:Haptoglobins; D002097:C-Reactive Protein