[950] ALDH1 Expression in Ovarian Cancers: Correlation with Histologic Type and Clinical Prognosis

B Chang, GZ Liu, DG Rosen, XM Wang, LC Xiao, JS Liu. The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX; Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX

Background: Aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1), a detoxifying enzyme responsible for the oxidation of intracellular aldehydes. ALDH may have a role in early differentiation of stem cells, through its role in oxidizing retinol to retinoic acid. It has been shown that ALDH1 is a marker of normal and malignant human mammary stem cells and a predictor of poor clinical outcome in breast cancer. The authors hypothesized that the expression of ALDH1 may be correlated with the clinical outcome of the patients with the ovarian cancer.
Design: Immunohistochemical staining of ALDH1 expression was analyzed in 442 primary ovarian carcinomas using tissue microarray. The association between the expression of the ALDH1 and the clinical factors including diagnosis, tumor grade, stage, ascities, and clinical response of the chemotherapy, as well the overall survival (OS) and disease free survival (DFS) was analyzed.
Results: Expression of ALDH1 was found in 49.3% of the samples. Fisher's exact test suggested that high expression of ALDH1 was significantly associated with endometroid adenocarcinoma (P < 0.0001), early-stage disease (p = 0.006), low grade (OR=10.54, p=0.0002), completely response of the chemotherapy (p = 0.007), and the low level of the serum CA125 (P = 0.02). A high percentage of ALDH1 expression was associated with a longer overall survival time in univariate analyses.
Conclusions: In contrast to breast cancer, ALDH1 was identified as an independent favorable prognostic factor in patients with ovarian carcinoma.
Category: Gynecologic

Wednesday, March 11, 2009 9:30 AM

Poster Session V # 157, Wednesday Morning