Prognostic role of Wnt7a expression in ovarian carcinoma patients

Abstract

Wnt7a is a secreted glycoprotein that regulates normal cellular proliferation and differentiation as well as tumorigenesis and progression. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression and prognostic significance of Wnt7a in ovarian carcinoma. Wnt7a expression was immunohistochemically examined in normal ovaries (n=15), benign tumors (n=50) and ovarian carcinomas (n=78). The correlation of Wnt7a expression with clinicopathological parameters and survival was evaluated. Wnt7a expression was higher in ovarian carcinomas compared to normal ovaries and benign tumors (p<0.001 and p=0.001, respectively). Wnt7a positive expression was significantly correlated with serous subtype (p<0.001), elder age (p=0.017), advanced stage (p<0.001), high grade (p=0.001), a high degree of ascitic fluid volume (p=0.015) and high CA125 expression (p=0.025). Wnt7a was found to be a significant prognostic factor in univariate and multivariate analysis. High Wnt7a expression in ovarian cancer may be associated with poor prognosis.

Overexpression of Wnt7α protein predicts poor survival in patients with colorectal carcinoma

“…A total of 187 of the 212 samples of normal mucosa (88.2 %) showed weak staining for Wnt7α. Colorectal adenomas and colon polyps showed low Wnt7α expression, and Wnt7α staining was detected mainly in the cytoplasm of tumor cells, in agreement with the results of a previous study[26].…”

“…Wnt7α staining was localized mainly in the cytoplasm, as in many other cancer tissues [26]. Wnt7α expression levels were determined in terms of staining intensity (i.e., 0 .…”

Expression of WNT genes in cervical cancer-derived cells: Implication of WNT7A in cell proliferation and migration

“…WNT7A expression possesses controversial roles in different types of cancer; in ovarian cancer, endometrial carcinoma, and human malignant pleural mesothelioma, its over-or underexpression has been proposed as a prognostic marker [16][17][18]. On the other hand, reconstitution of WNT7A activity in lung cancer and in leukemic cells demonstrated an inhibitory role in cell proliferation [19,20] but, at present, there is no report to our knowledge on the relationship between WNT7A activity and CC.…”

“…Especially, WNT10A and WNT7A expression was found strongly downregulated (À 9.31 and À 5.34, respectively) in HeLa and SiHa cells, suggesting that alterations in these ligands could be important for carcinogenesis. Validation of all WNT ligand expression was performed by qPCR (data not shown); however, because WNT7A has been previously described as being involved in ovarian, breast, and lung cancer [11,16,26], and also because our group detected its expression in primary foreskin-derived cells, we delved deeply into the role of WNT7A in the CC model.…”

Ovarian cancer: Origin and factors involved in carcinogenesis with potential use in diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of the disease

“…Similarly, positive NAC1 expression significantly correlated with shorter disease-free and overall survival and revealed as an independent prognostic factor for these characteristics after standard platinum-taxane chemotherapy in another recent study [141]. Wnt7a expression has been found to be correlated with serous subtype, elder age, advanced stage and high grade, suggesting the association with poor prognosis [142]. Patients with p53-positive tumors (alone/or combined with p27 and/or C-MYC) had significantly worse survival (DFS) compared with patients with p53-negative tumors and continued to have recurrences after the 5-year follow-up [143].…”