Prognostic values of aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 isoenzymes in ovarian cancer

Aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1) activity has been used as a functional stem cell marker to isolate cancer stem cells in different cancer types, including ovarian cancer. However, which ALDH1’s isoenzymes are contributing to ALDH1 activity in ovarian cancer remains elusive. In addition, the prognostic value of an individual ALDH1 isoenzyme in ovarian cancer is not clear. Thus, we accessed the prognostic value of ALDH1 isoenzymes in ovarian cancer patients through the “Kaplan–Meier plotter” online database, which can be used to determine the effect of the genes on ovarian cancer prognosis. We found that high mRNA expression of five ALDH1 isoenzymes, such as ALDH1A1, ALDH1A2, ALDH1A3, ALDH1B1, and ALDH1L1, was not correlated with overall survival (OS) for all 1,306 ovarian cancer patients. In addition, all five of the ALDH1 isoenzymes’ high mRNA expression was found to be uncorrelated with OS in serous cancer or endometrioid cancer patients. However, ALDH1A3’s high mRNA expression is associated with worse OS in grade II ovarian cancer patients, hazard ratio (HR) 1.53 (1.14–2.07), P=0.005. ALDH1A2’s high mRNA expression is significantly associated with worse OS in TP53 wild-type ovarian cancer patients, HR 2.86 (1.56–5.08), P=0.00036. In addition, ALDH1A3’s high mRNA expression is significantly associated with better OS in TP53 wild-type ovarian cancer patients, HR 0.56 (0.32–1.00), P=0.04. Our results indicate that although ALDH1 isoenzyme mRNA might not be a prognostic marker for overall ovarian cancer patients, some isoenzymes, such as ALDH1A2 and ALDH1A3, might be a good prognostic marker for some types of ovarian cancer patients.