Expression and clinical significance of YKL-40 protein in epithelial ovarian cancer tissues.
OBJECTIVE
Overexpression of YKL-40 has been detected in the sera from patients with various kinds of malignant tumors, including epithelial ovarian cancer. Moreover, YKL-40 expression is closely related to clinical phenotypes of some malignant tumors. This study was to investigate the expression and clinical significance of YKL-40 protein in epithelial ovarian cancer tissues.


METHODS
Protein expression of YKL-40 was detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC) using tissue microarray (TMA) consisting of 86 specimens of epithelial ovarian cancer and 20 specimens of normal ovarian tissues. The correlations of YKL-40 expression to clinical features and prognosis, as well as to the expression of clusterin protein in epithelial ovarian cancer were evaluated.


RESULTS
The expression of YKL-40 in all normal ovarian tissues was negative or at low levels. In 74 evaluable specimens of epithelial ovarian cancer, overexpression of YKL-40 was detected in 42 cases (56.8%). YKL-40 expression was closely associated with the clinical stage of epithelial ovarian cancer (p < 0.0001). The overall survival time in patients with overexpression of YKL-40 was significantly shorter than that in patients with normal expression of YKL-40 (p = 0.0389). Moreover, expression of YKL-40 protein was positively correlated with that of clusterin protein in epithelial ovarian cancer (p < 0.0001).


CONCLUSIONS
YKL-40 may be used as a new molecular marker to predict the prognosis of epithelial ovarian cancer.
Yang
Guo-Fen
GF
Department of Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, PR China.
Cai
Peng-Yu
PY
Li
Xiao-Ming
XM
Deng
Hai-Xia
HX
He
Wei-Peng
WP
Xie
Dan
D
D054392:Adipokines; D000071451:Chitinase-3-Like Protein 1; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D037102:Lectins; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D011379:Prognosis; D016019:Survival Analysis; D046888:Tissue Array Analysis
D054392:Adipokines; C084533:CHI3L1 protein, human; D000071451:Chitinase-3-Like Protein 1; D006023:Glycoproteins; D037102:Lectins