Overexpression of hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha is a marker for an unfavorable prognosis in early-stage invasive cervical cancer

Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF-1 alpha) is a transcriptional factor that regulates genes involved in response to hypoxia and promotes neoangiog enesis, which are considered essential for tumor growth and progression. Us ing immunohistochemistry, we investigated the influence of HIF-1 alpha expr ession on prognosis in 91 patients with cervical cancer stage pT1b. In univ ariate and multivariate analysis, patients with strong expression of HIF-1 alpha had a significantly shorter overall survival time (P = 0.0307, log-ra nk test) and disease-free survival time (P < 0.0001, log-rank test) compare d with those with moderate to absent HIF-1 alpha expression, HIF-1 alpha ex pression is a strong independent prognostic marker in early stage cervical cancer.