Characteristics of the Distribution of Ferritin in Epithelial Ovarian Tumor Patients: Results of a Retrospective, Observational Study

摘要

Purpose: To investigate the ferritin distribution in epithelial ovarian cancer patients according to the FIGO stage in the prognosis of epithelial ovarian cancer. Method: All ovarian cancer patients were divided into two groups according their FIGO stage. Benign ovarian tumor patients were analyzed as the control. Serum ferritin, serum iron, and other related medical index were detected by automatic instruments for all patients. In addition, ferritin heavy chain (FHC) and ferritin light chain (FLC) proteins were detected by immunohistochemical staining in 60 epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) patients and 30 benign ovarian tumor (BOT) patients, which were diagnosed in our department between 2011 and 2016. Results: The serum ferritin concentration was significantly higher in the EOC group than in the BOT group (172.56 ± 99.39 ng/mL vs 78.18 ± 43.06 ng/mL; p < 0.001). The average concentration of serum iron was slightly lower in the EOC group than in the BOT group (11.11 ± 5.68 μ mol/L vs 14.92 ± 6.36 μ mol/L; p < 0.01). In addition, FHC and FLC proteins were highly expressed in EOC patients and localized at least in the cytoplasm and nucleus. Quantitative data of the FHC or FLC expression showed a significant increase in the average optical density in the benign ovarian tumor group compared with the FIGO I-II stage ovarian cancer group ( p < 0.01 and p < 0.01, respectively) as well as in the FIGO I-II stage ovarian cancer group compared with the FIGO III-IV stage ovarian cancer group ( p < 0.05 and p < 0.05, respectively). In addition, FHC and FLC positive rates of 81.7% and 76.7%, respectively, were found in the ovarian cancer group; the FLC positive rate in the FIGO I-II stage ovarian cancer group was lower than in the FIGO III-IV stage ovarian cancer group (58.3% vs 86.1%; p < 0.05); and the FHC positive rate in the FIGO I-II stage ovarian cancer group was lower than in the FIGO III-IV stage ovarian cancer group (70.8% vs 88.9%), but this difference was not statistically significant ( p > 0.05). Conclusion: Patients showed an overexpression of ferritin and a downregulation of serum iron correlated with the prognosis of epithelial ovarian cancer, which may be a new target for diagnosis and treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer.