title: ALDH enzymatic activity and CD133 positivity and response to chemotherapy in ovarian cancer patients.
abstract: The prognostic/predictive role of both CD133 and Aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) expression in human ovarian cancer remains elusive. This is an observational study that investigated the expression of CD133 and of ALDH enzymatic activity in fresh ovarian cancer samples and their association with different clinic-pathological patient' characteristics and explored their possible predictive/prognostic role. We analyzed the expression of CD133 and ALDH enzymatic activity in 108 human ovarian cancer samples. We found that among the total patients analyzed, 13% of them was completely negative for ALDH activity and 26% was negative for CD133 staining. Both markers were variably expressed within the samples and when both studied in the same tumor sample, no statistically significant correlation between ALDH enzymatic activity and CD133 expression was found. No statistical significant correlation was found also between the percentage values of positive ALDH and CD133 cells and the number of serial passages patient's cultures underwent, suggesting that these markers do not confer by themselves a self-renewal growth advantage to the cultures. Lower levels of CD133 were associated with higher tumor grade. No correlation with response to therapy, progression free survival and overall survival was found. Our data suggest that neither ALDH enzymatic activity nor CD133 expression provide additional predictive/prognostic information in ovarian cancer patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche "Mario Negri"- IRCCS Via La Masa 19, 20156 Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ricci
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bernasconi
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Porcu
authors.forename: Eugenio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Erba
authors.forename: Nicolò
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Panini
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fruscio
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sina
authors.forename: Valter
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Torri
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Broggini
authors.forename: Giovanna
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Damia
keywords: ALDH activity; CD133; ovarian carcinoma