Overexpression of Class III β-tubulin, Sox2, and nuclear Survivin is predictive of taxane resistance in patients with stage III ovarian epithelial cancer

BACKGROUND: Class III β-tubulin, Sox2, and Survivin play important roles in tumor survival and proliferation. However, the association of these three factors with clinicopathological characteristics, chemoresistance, and survival in patients with ovarian cancer remains controversial. METHODS: We investigated the predictive value and correlation among the expression levels of Class III β-tubulin, Sox2, and Survivin in 110 patients with stage III ovarian epithelial cancer, including 58 patients who received taxane-based chemotherapy and 52 patients who received non-taxane-based chemotherapy. Expression of these three factors was immunohistochemically examined in 110 ovarian tumor tissues obtained from patients before chemotherapy. RESULTS: The positive expression rates for Class III β-tubulin, Sox2, and Survivin in ovarian tumor tissues were 59.09 %, 61.82 % and 52.73 %, respectively. The expression of nuclear Survivin and Class III β-tubulin was consistent with that of Sox2 (p = 0.005 and 0.020, respectively). Positive expression of Class III β-tubulin, Sox2, and nuclear Survivin was significantly associated with chemoresistance to taxane-based chemotherapy (p = 0.006, 0.007, and 0.009, respectively), but not to non-taxane-based chemotherapy. Additionally, overexpression of Class III β-tubulin, Sox2, and nuclear Survivin predicted poor progression-free survival in patients receiving taxane-based chemotherapy (p = 0.032, 0.005, and 0.004, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that overexpression of Class III β-tubulin, Sox2, and nuclear Survivin might be predictive of taxane resistance and poor progression-free survival in patients with stage III ovarian epithelial cancer. Expression of these three factors may show positive correlations in these patients. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12885-015-1553-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.