Overexpression of BMI-1 is associated with poor prognosis in cervical cancer.
OBJECTIVE
It has been reported that BMI-1, a gene transcription promoter overexpressed in various human cancers, is associated with poor survival. We investigated whether BMI-1 is a marker for cervical cancer by detecting the expression of BMI-1 in cervical cancer.


METHODS
An immunohistochemistry (IHC) streptavidin-peroxidase technique was used to identify BMI-1 protein expression in 302 cervical cancer specimens. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and Western blot were employed to measure BMI-1 mRNA and protein level. The correlation between BMI-1 expression and clinicopathological factors was analyzed.


RESULTS
Both BMI-1 mRNA and protein expression were evident in cervical carcinoma tissues. An intense positive rate of 55.3% (167/302) was observed by IHC. High BMI-1 expression was correlated with clinical stage, lymph node metastasis, vascular invasion and human papillomavirus (HPV) infection (P < 0.05), but there is insufficient evidence to confirm its value in tumor size, age, estrogen or progesterone receptor (P > 0.05). The BMI-1 protein level was positively correlated with the clinical stages of cervical carcinoma and a high BMI-1 expression was associated with poor prognosis (P < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
The high expression of BMI-1 in cervical cancer is related to tumor progression, lymph node metastasis and HPV infection, suggesting that cervical cancer with excessive BMI-1 expression possesses high metastases potential and that BMI-1 may be a promising biomarker for predicting metastasis in cervical cancer.
Department of Clinical Laboratory, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Hubei 430060, China.
Yong-Qing
YQ
Tong
Bei
B
Liu
Hong-Yun
HY
Zheng
Yu-Juan
YJ
He
Jian
J
Gu
Feng
F
Li
Yan
Y
Li
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D063150:Polycomb Repressive Complex 1 / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D011379:Prognosis; D016019:Survival Analysis; D015996:Survival Rate; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology
C069077:BMI1 protein, human; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D063150:Polycomb Repressive Complex 1