Aim: To evaluate the expression of ERCC-1 in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) and to correlate it with the expression of p53, bcl-2 and bax.
Materials and methods: Tumor samples from 60 patients with EOC were immunohistochemically investigated for the expression of ERCC1, p53, bcl-2 and bax.
Results: ERCC-1 expression was significantly decreased in serous and endometrioid compared to clear cell carcinomas. P53 expression was significantly increased in serous compared to clear cell carcinomas. Bax expression was significantly increased in serous carcinomas as compared to MMTs. High disease stage was correlated with low ERCC-1 and high bcl-2 expression. ERCC-1 expression was associated with increased disease-free interval.
Conclusion: ERCC-1 status seems to be correlated with disease-free interval, stage and tumor histologic subtype in patients with EOC. Nevertheless, our results indicate that single-gene expressions may be unreliable and thus caution is needed when used as potential prognostic or predictive markers.