Cannabinoid receptor type 1 immunoreactivity and disease severity in human epithelial ovarian tumors

Objective: In light of recent findings indicating that endocannabinoid system has antitumor actions, our study aimed to localize it in the human epithelial ovarian tumors, highlighting the differences among benign, borderline, and invasive forms and correlating cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1R) expression with disease severity.

Study design: We determined CB1R immunohistochemical expression in 66 epithelial ovarian tumors treated in the Department of Woman, Child, and General and Specialized Surgery, Second University of Naples, at S. Maria del Popolo degli Incurabili Hospital (Naples): 36 borderline ovarian tumors, the main target of interest being intermediate forms, 15 benign and 15 invasive ovarian tumors.

Results: The benign ovarian tumors showed a weak expression of CB1R in the 33% of the cases and moderate expression in the 67% of the cases. Borderline ovarian tumors had a similar trend. They showed weak CB1R expression in 28% of the cases, moderate expression in 53% of the cases, and strong expression in 19% of the cases. In contrast, invasive tumors showed a weak expression of CB1R in 7% of the cases, moderate expression in 20% of the cases, and strong expression in 73% of the cases.

Conclusion: The recorded data show that the expression of CB1R increased from benign and borderline to malignant tumors. In the near future, endocannabinoid receptors might be used in clinical practice, alone or in combination with other markers, to identify or better characterize ovarian tumors, without considering the great opportunity that they might represent as therapeutic targets.