c-met is overexpressed in type I ovarian cancer: Results of an investigative analysis in a cohort of consecutive ovarian cancer patients.
The tyrosine kinase c-met alters signaling cascades such as the BRAF-MAPK and PI3K-PKB pathways. These alterations are involved in the carcinogenesis of type I but not type II ovarian cancer (OC). Therefore, the present study investigated the patterns of c-met expression in a cohort of consecutive patients with OC. c-met expression was determined by immunohistochemical analysis. Differences in c-met overexpression among subgroups of established clinicopathological features, including age, histological subtype, tumor stage, histological grading, post-operative tumor burden and completeness of chemotherapy, were determined by χ2test. Cox regression analyses were performed to determine the prognostic effect of c-met. Survival rates were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. A total of 106 patients were enrolled into the study. c-met was overexpressed in 20.8% of the entire cohort; 35.7% of patients with type I OC and 8.6% of patients with type II OC showed overexpression (P=0.001). However, c-met overexpression was not associated with any other established clinicopathological features (all P-values >0.05). Univariate Cox regression analysis showed that overexpression of c-met was associated neither with progression-free survival (PFS) nor with disease-specific survival (DSS) (P=0.835 and P=0.414, respectively). Kaplan-Meier plots also failed to demonstrate an effect of c-met on the 5-year PFS and DSS rates (P=0.938 and P=0.412, respectively). These findings support the hypotheses that the overexpression of c-met is associated with type I but not type II OC, and that overexpression of c-met does not affect the prognosis of OC.
Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz D-55131, Germany.
Marco Johannes
MJ
Battista
Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz D-55131, Germany.
Marcus
M
Schmidt
Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz D-55131, Germany.
Sina
S
Jakobi
Department of Pathology, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz D-55131, Germany.
Cristina
C
Cotarelo
Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz D-55131, Germany.
Katrin
K
Almstedt
Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz D-55131, Germany.
Anne-Sophie
AS
Heimes
Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz D-55131, Germany.
Georgios-Marios
GM
Makris
Institute of Medical Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz D-55131, Germany.
Veronika
V
Weyer
Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz D-55131, Germany.
Antje
A
Lebrecht
Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz D-55131, Germany.
Gerald
G
Hoffmann
Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Marienkrankenhaus Frankfurt, Frankfurt D-60318, Germany.
Michael
M
Eichbaum
c-met; ovarian cancer; prognosis; type I ovarian cancer; type II ovarian cancer