Heterogeneous Expression of Serine Protease Inhibitor Maspin in Ovarian Cancer

Ovarian cancer (OC) is a disease with poor prognosis, and molecular markers are needed to improve understanding of disease progression and resultant treatment. Only limited data concerning the expression of maspin, a serine protease inhibitor, in ovarian cancer (OC) are available. This study investigates the prognostic value of maspin expression (ME) in various OC cell lines and clinical tissue specimens from OC patients. Patients and Methods: Tumour purified mouse anti-human maspin monoclonal antibody was applied to tissue specimens from 87 OC patients. ME was recorded by an immunoreactive score, which was correlated with grading, stage, histopathological subtypes and overall survival. Additionally ME was evalu- ated in established ovarian cancer cell lines (HEY, SKOV3, OVCAR3/8) and paclitaxel- and docetaxel-resistant HEY cells by QRT-PCR. Results: There was significant correlation between cytoplasmatic ME and overall survival (p 75%) diagnosed at an advanced stage (FIGO III or IV) with a poor prognosis. The five-year survival rate for stage III is 25%, whereas the five-year survival rate for stage I is 70-80% (1). Standard treatment is based on platinum and taxane-containing chemotherapy and cytoreductive surgery (2). There is neither a suitable screening tool nor a biological prognostic marker available for OC. New markers which would allow a prognostic evaluation of the disease in terms of overall survival or prediction of chemotherapy response could be used to optimise therapy in improve the benefit from chemotherapy. The clinical relevance of the serine protease inhibitor