Expression and clinical significance of Gal-3 and NFκB pathway-related factors in epithelial ovarian carcinoma

OBJECTIVE: To explore the expression and clinical significance of Gal-3 and NFκB pathway related factors in epithelial ovarian carcinoma cells. METHODS: 99 histologic specimens of epithelial ovarian cancer and 20 normal ovarian histologic specimens were collected, and the expressions of Gal-3, IκB and p65 were detected by immunohistochemistry. Their relationship with clinical characteristics was analyzed. RESULTS: The expression of Gal-3 and p65 was negatively correlated with the overall survival rate (P<0.05), while the expression of IκB was positively correlated with the overall survival rate (P<0.05). Expression of Gal-3, p65 and IκB were found associated with EOC platinum resistance (P<0.05), and expression of Gal-3 and p65 correlated with pathologic grading (P<0.05). IκB and Gal-3 were associated with the recurrence of EOC (P<0.05). IκB may be related to clinical stage (P<0.05). Multivariate analysis results showed that abnormal expression of Gal-3 may be an independent prognostic risk factors for the drug resistance to platinum-based chemotherapy (95% CI=5.336~34.112, P<0.05). The expression of Gal-3, p65, and IκB can be clinical immunohistochemical indicators that determine the prognosis of EOC, but the amount of Gal-3 expression was related to the epithelial ovarian cancer's pathologic type and overall survival, which suggested that Gal-3 can be used as a prognostic factor in epithelial ovarian cancer. CONCLUSION: Targeted therapy of Gal-3 may become an effective potential new method against epithelial ovarian cancer.