PGRN levels were not significantly increased in patients with early-stage or late-stage EOC as a whole, but an increase in PGRN levels was associated with decreased overall survival in advanced EOC.
Progranulin expression may be potentially involved in the pathogenesis and malignant progression of ovarian cancer, and thus may represent a therapeutic target for this particular malignancy.
In order to assess the function of Acrogranin (also known as granulin epithelial precursor; GEP) in ovarian carcinogenesis, ovarian surface epithelial (OSE) cells, which are supposed to be the origin of primary ovarian epithelial cancer, were transfected with combined genes of hTERT, SV40 LT, and Acrogranin.
Differential granulin expression in tumor samples and the antiproliferative effects of its antisense down-regulation suggest that GEP may be a new autocrine growth factor and molecular target for epithelial ovarian cancer.