Elevated Levels of Lewis Y and Integrin α(5)β(1) Correlate with Chemotherapeutic Drug Resistance in Epithelial Ovarian Carcinoma

OBJECTIVE: To measure Lewis y and integrin α(5)β(1) expression in epithelial ovarian carcinoma and to correlate the levels of these molecules with ovarian carcinoma chemotherapy and prognosis. METHODS: The study population included 34 ovarian carcinoma patients with chemotherapeutic drug-resistance, six partially drug-sensitive cases, and 52 drug-sensitive cases (92 total). Immunochemistry was used to determine expression of Lewis y antigen and integrin α(5)β(1) in ovarian carcinoma tissues, and correlation of these molecules with chemotherapy resistance was further investigated, Multi-factor logistic regression analysis was applied to investigate: age, surgical stage, grade, subtype of patient cases, metastasis of lymph nodes, residual tumor size, expression levels of Lewis y antigen and integrin α(5)β(1) correlation with ovarian carcinoma chemotherapy resistance. RESULTS: The expression rates of Lewis y antigen and integrins α(5) and β(1) were significantly greater in the drug-resistant group (91.17%, 85.29%, 88.24%) than the partially sensitive (50.00%, 33.33%, 50.00%) or sensitive groups (61.54%, 57.69%, 55.77%). Binary logistic regression analysis revealed that surgical stage, residual tumor size, and expression of integrin α(5) and Lewis y in ovarian carcinoma tissues were independent risk factors for chemotherapeutic drug resistance. CONCLUSIONS: Overexpression of Lewis y and integrin α(5) are strong risk factors for chemotherapeutic drug resistance in ovarian carcinoma patients.