The clinical significance of HPIP and the associated prognosis in cervical cancer

// Fanling Meng 1, * , Haixia Liu 1, * , Shuang Liu 1 and Rong Ma 1 1 Department of Gynecology, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, Harbin, China * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Rong Ma, email: dr_marong2017@126.com Keywords: hematopoietic pre-B-cell leukemia transcription factor-interacting protein, HPIP, cervical cancer, metastasis, prognosis Received: April 11, 2017      Accepted: June 20, 2017      Published: July 26, 2017 ABSTRACT Hematopoietic pre-B-cell leukemia transcription factor-interacting protein (HPIP), is known to promote tumor development and metastasis. However its role in cervical cancer remains unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical significance of HPIP expression and the prognosis of patients with cervical cancer. Fresh frozen tissues from 10 samples of cervical cancer and 8normal cervical tissues were analyzed for HPIP expression using real-time reverse transcription PCR and Western blot analysis. A total of 129 paraffin-embedded surgical specimens from patients with CC were collected for an immunohistochemistry assay to measure HPIP expression. Correlations of HPIP expression with clinicopathological factors and prognosis of patients with cervical cancer were analyzed. The HPIP expression at both the mRNA and protein levels was significantly higher in cervical cancer tissues than in normal cervical tissues ( P <0.001). HPIP overexpression was significantly associated with high FIGO stage ( P =0.005), Histological grade ( P <0.001), Ascular tumor embolus ( P =0.004), Iinterstitial infiltration ( P <0.001), Tumor size ( P =0.001) and Lymph node metastasis ( P =0.005). Moreover, results revealed that HPIP expression was an independently prognostic factor for both overall survival [hazard ratio (HR): 8.874; 95% CI: 1.186–66.393; P =0.033] and disease-free survival [(HR): 11.523; 95% CI: 1.531–86.746; P =0.018] in patients with cervical cancer. The present study provides evidence that HPIP predicts metastasis and poor survival, highlighting its potential function as a therapeutic target for cervical cancer.