Human Leukocyte Antigen Class I Antigen Expression Is an Independent Prognostic Factor in Ovarian Cancer

• Published in: Clinical cancer research Vol. 13; no. 12; pp. 3591 - 3596
• Main Authors: ROLLAND, Phil, DEEN, Suha, SCOTT, Ian, DURRANT, Lindy, SPENDLOVE, Ian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia, PA American Association for Cancer Research 15-06-2007
• Subjects: Adult; Antineoplastic agents; Biological and medical sciences; Biomarkers, Tumor - analysis; Down-Regulation; Female; Female genital diseases; Gene Expression; Gynecology. Andrology. Obstetrics; Histocompatibility Antigens Class I - biosynthesis; HLA; Humans; Immunohistochemistry; Kaplan-Meier Estimate; Medical sciences; MHC; Microarray analysis; Middle Aged; Ovarian neoplasms; Ovarian Neoplasms - metabolism; Ovarian Neoplasms - mortality; Ovarian Neoplasms - pathology; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Prognosis; Tissue Array Analysis; Tumors; Ovarian diseases; Prognosis; Ovary cancer; Malignant tumor; Gene expression; Class I histocompatibility antigen; Female genital diseases
• ISSN: 1078-0432; 1557-3265
• DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-06-2087

Purpose: Despite improvements in cancer treatment, the prognosis of ovarian cancer remains low and imperfectly predicted by traditional
pathologic criteria. Biomarkers that predict prognosis independently of such criteria shed light on important molecular variations,
aiding in the development and targeting of novel therapies. Previous work has shown human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I
antigen expression to be independently predictive of prognosis in colorectal and breast cancer. We investigated the prognostic
potential of HLA class I antigen expression by studying a large series of ovarian cancers.
Experimental Design: A tissue microarray of 339 ovarian cancer cases linked to prospectively recorded clinicopathologic and follow-up data was
constructed. This was stained following a standard immunohistochemical protocol for HLA class I heavy chain (HC-10) and β 2 -microglobulin (β 2 -m). HLA class I antigen expression was compared with clinicopathologic factors and overall disease-specific survival using
the Pearson χ 2 test, Kaplan-Meier curves, and the log-rank test. Cox regression was used to test for the independence and magnitude of effects.
Results: There were no univariate correlations between HLA class I antigen expression and clinicopathologic factors. Deviation from
an HC-10 + /β 2 -m + phenotype correlated with reduced survival in univariate analysis (log-rank, 5.69; P = 0.017); a retained HC-10 + /β 2 -m + phenotype predicted improved prognosis independently of age, stage, level of cytoreduction, and chemotherapy usage on multivariate
analysis (hazard ratio, 0.587; 95% confidence interval, 0.442-0.781; P < 0.001).
Conclusions: HLA class I antigen expression is an independent prognostic marker in ovarian cancer, its loss correlating with a poor prognostic
outcome.