Survival rates in HLA-A2 positive patients, with stage III-IV serous adenocarcinomas of the ovary, correlates with increased expression of COX-2 and iNOS, loss of MHC Class I and II and defects of the antigen processing mechanisms at the tumour level

16544 Background: We have shown that the high prevalence of HLA-A2 in Scandinavia is associated to poor prognosis in advanced (stage III-IV) serous adenocarcinoma of the ovary. Our objective was to analyse whether there exists a relationship between the expression of HLA molecules and components of the antigen processing pathway as well as the presence of high COX-2 activity and the patients´ survival. Methods: To test our hypothesis, 40 Swedish women with epithelial ovarian cancer were selected from an unbiased database of ovarian cancer patients at our department. Their HLA haplotypes were defined by the PCR/sequence-specific oligonucleotide hybridization method (PCR/SSOP) Tissue slides from paraffin embedded tumour material were stained with antibodies recognising COX-2, iNOS, MHC-class I/II heavy chain (HC) and molecules of the antigen processing machinery (APM). The probability of survival was defined by Kaplan-Meier analysis. Results: HLA-A2 positive patients, in stage III-IV were distinguished with...