Correlation of cytokines and inducible nitric oxide synthase expression with prognostic factors in ovarian cancer

Abstract The study related the immunohistochemical staining of cytokines (IL2, IL5, IL6, IL8, IL10, and TNF-alpha), and iNOS staining with clinical and pathological parameters of patients with primary ovarian malignancy. We prospectively evaluated 40 patients who underwent surgical treatment in accordance with pre-established criteria and later confirmed diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Immunohistochemistry study for cytokines (IL2, IL5, IL6, IL8, IL10, TNF-alpha) and iNOS was performed. The evaluation of prognostic factors was performed using the Fisher's exact test. The significance level was less than 0.05. Histological grade 1 was significantly correlated with strong intensity for TNF-α ( p  = 0.0028). In addition, early stages showed strong expression intensity of TNF-α, but this was at the limit of significance ( p  = 0.0525). Strong staining immunohistochemical IL5 was related to disease-free survival less than or equal to 24 months, suggesting that a factor of poor prognosis, but there was no statistical significance ( p  = 0.1771). There was no statistical significance in relation at other cytokines studied. Therefore, immunohistochemical staining in strong intensity for TNF-α was related to histological grade 1 and early stages of ovarian cancer in our sample of patients.