Quantitative detection of serum survivin and its relationship with prognostic factors in ovarian cancer

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to determine the clinical significance of serum survivin in ovarian cancer. METHODS: A total of 65 patients with ovarian tumors including 21 epithelial ovarian cancer, 22 benign epithelial ovarian tumor, 13 dermoid cyst and 9 endometrioma cases were investigated. All histologic types of cancer were serous carcinoma except for 1 case of undifferentiated carcinoma. ELISA was employed to evaluate the serum survivin levels. For statistical analysis, we used Fisher's exact test, Spearman's correlation coefficient test, the Mann-Whitney U test, the log-rank test and Cox regression analysis. RESULTS: The survivin level was higher in serous ovarian cancer than in benign epithelial tumors with marginal significance. In ovarian cancer, serum survivin was positively correlated with age, advanced stage and poor disease-free survival. Interestingly, high survivin level positivity was associated with positive peritoneal cytology and omental metastasis of ovarian cancer. CONCLUSIONS: Our data collectively suggest that serum survivin reflects the peritoneal metastasis of serous ovarian cancer and may thus be useful as a prognostic biomarker.