In this study, the evaluation of E-cadherin expression in an OC tissue microarray revealed its prognostic value to discriminate between advanced- and early-stage tumors, as well as serous tumors from other histologies.
The prognostic role of epithelial cadherin (E-cadherin) downregulation in ovarian cancer has been assessed for years while the results remain inconclusive.
Decreased epithelial cadherin (E-cadherin) expression is hypothesized to be related to poor prognosis of ovarian cancer, but the predictive value is still inconsistent.
The findings showed that CDH1 promoter methylation had an increased risk of ovarian cancer in cancer tissues (OR = 8.71, P < 0.001) in comparison with nonmalignant tissues.
In conclusion, Dysfunction of the cell cycle and/or the cell-cell adhesion molecule plays a role in the pathogenesis of ovarian cancer and that the analysis of the methylation of p15 and E-cadherin genes can provide clinically important evidence on which to base the treatment.
These findings suggest that the expression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition-related genes such as ZEB2 and CDH1 may play important roles in the invasion process of advanced stage serous ovarian cancer.
Therefore, we conclude that assessment of E-cadherin immunoreactivity or methylation of CDH1 may be a useful prognostic indicator in ovarian cancer, complementary to established prognostic factors.