EphA5 protein, a potential marker for distinguishing histological grade and prognosis in ovarian serous carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Ovarian serous carcinoma (OSC) is the most common ovarian epithelial malignancy. Disregulation of Eph/ephrin signaling has been implicated in oncogenesis and tumor progression. EphA5 receptor is one of large families of Eph tyrosine kinase receptor and is documented in the development of nervous system. Till now, there is no published data about the role of EphA5 in ovarian epithelial neoplasmas. METHODS: This study aims to investigate the expression of EphA5 protein in ovarian serous carcinoma, and its relationship to clinical pathological characteristics. Sixty-one cases of ovarian serous carcinoma, 24 cases of benign ovarian serous tumors, 42 cases of serous borderline tumors and 20 cases of normal fallopian tubes were examined using immunohistochemical staining. The relationship between EphA5 expression and pathological parameters was analyzed. Kaplan-Meier survival function was used to analyze prognosis of patients. RESULTS: Immunostaining analysis demonstrated that the EphA5 protein was highly expressed in 100% (20/20) of normal fallopian tube samples, 100% (24/24) of benign epithelial ovarian tumors, 76% (32/42) of ovarian serous borderline tumors, and 31% (19/61) of ovarian serous carcinomas. Loss of EphA5expression was associated with tumor grade (P < 0.001) and FIGO stage (P = 0.005). The survival analysis showed that patients with negative or weak expression of EphA5 protein had a poor outcome than those with positive expression (P = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that EphA5 may be a potential biomarker for distinguishing high-and low-grade ovarian serous carcinoma and a potential prognostic marker.