THE EXPRESSION LEVEL OF METASTASIS-RELATED GENES IN PATIENTS WITH DIFFERENT DEGREES OF CERVICAL LESIONS AND ITS CORRELATION WITH CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CERVICAL CANCER

Yun Li¹, Xiuli Sun^{2, 3, *}

¹Department of Gynecology, Hanzhong Central Hospital, Hanzhong 723000, PR China - ²Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Shaanxi Province Tuberculosis Prevention and Treatment Institute, Xi’an 710100, PR China - ³Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Shaanxi Province Fifth People’s Hospital, Xi’an 710100, PR China

Objective: To explore the expression level of metastasis-related genes in patients with different degrees of cervical lesions and its correlation with clinicopathological characteristics of cervical cancer. 

Methods: A total of 32 cases of cervical epithelioma-like lesions (CIN) (CIN group, 12 cases of CIN grade I, 10 cases of CIN grade II, 10 cases of CIN grade III) and 59 cases of cervical cancer (cervical cancer group, 16 cases of stage I, 29 cases of stage II, 14 cases of stage III) archived in the department of pathology of our hospital from September 2014 to September 2016 were assigned into the CIN group and cervical cancer group, respectively. Moreover, 17 cases of normal cervical tissue archived in the pathology department of our hospital during the same period were selected as the normal group. The quantitative protein expression of CD44v6 and nm23-H1 in normal cervix, CIN, and cancerous cervical tissues was observed, and the expression of CD44v6 and nm23-H1 in various differentiated CIN tissues and cervical cancer tissues in various clinical stages was compared. The correlation between the quantitative protein expression of CD44v6 and nm23-H1 and the clinicopathological characteristics of cervical cancer patients was further investigated. 

Results: The expressions of CD44v6 and nm23-HI in the cervical cancer group and the CIN group were significantly higher than those in the normal group (P<0.05), and the expression of CD44v6 protein in the cervical cancer group was significantly higher than that in the CIN group (P<0.05). Also, no statistically significant difference was revealed in the expression of nm23-HI between the cervical cancer group and the CIN group (P>0.05). The expression of CD44v6 protein in CIN grades II and III was significantly higher than that in CIN grade I (P<0.05), and there was no significant difference in the CD44v6 protein expression in CIN grade II and CIN grade III (P>0.05). Furthermore, no significant differences were seen in nm23-H1 protein expression in CIN grades I, II, or III (P>0.05). The expression of CD44v6 protein was significantly higher, but the expression of the nm23-H1 protein was significantly lower in stage II and stage III than that in stage I (P<0.05). Moreover, the expression of CD44v6 protein was significantly higher, but the expression level of nm23-H1was significantly lower in stage III than that in stage II (P<0.05). The expression of CD44v6 was related to pelvic lymph node metastasis in patients with cervical cancer (P<0.05), but not related to the age of onset, age of first marriage, number of childbirths, tumor diameter, degree of differentiation, and histological type (P>0.05). The expression of nm23-H1 was associated with the age of first marriage, tumor diameter, histological type, and pelvic lymph node metastasis in patients with cervical cancer (P<0.05), but not with the age of onset, number of childbirths, and degree of differentiation (P>0.05). 

Conclusions: The high expression of CD44v6 and the low expression of nm23-H1 are closely related to the progression and metastasis of cervical cancer, and they are expected to become good indicators for evaluating the biological characteristics of cervical cancer.