Expression of cell cycle regulators p57(KIP2), cyclin D1, and cyclin E in epithelial ovarian tumors and survival

The search for new prognostic indicators is especially important in the dia gnosis and treatment of ovarian cancer because clinicopathologic criteria c urrently used to predict survival are largely inadequate. We examined 2 gro ups of patients with epithelial ovarian cancer, 1 group of long-term surviv ors (>5 years), and 1 group of short-term survivors (<2 years) for levels o f expression of the cell cycle regulators p57(KIP2), cyclin D1, and cyclin E and their relationship with survival. Our findings show that p57(KIP2) is not associated with prognosis, in contrast to p27(KIP1) expression, which is previously shown to be positively associated with long-term survival in univariate analysis (P = .001). Cyclin E expression, in contrast to cyclin D1 expression, is marginally associated with short-term survival in univari ate analysis for a group of 53 women. Among the short-term survivors, 15 (6 5%) of 23 were positive for cyclin E expression, compared with only 11 (37% ) of 30 long-term survivors (P = 0.054). This association remained signific ant (P = .04) in a logistic regression analysis adjusted simultaneously for performance status and extent of residual disease, the 2 strongest predict ors of survival in our study. We also found a significant difference in the frequency of the cyclin E staining pattern between nonserous and serous ov arian tumor subtypes (P = .0002). Immunostaining for levels of cyclin E and p27(KIP1) expression may have potential as prognostic markers in the manag ement of ovarian cancer. HUNT PATHOL 32:808-813. Copyright (C) 2001 by W.B. Saunders Company.