Objectives: Hematopoietic pre-B-cell leukemia transcription factor (PBX)-interacting protein (HPIP) plays an important role in cancer invasion and metastasis. The aim of this study is to investigate the expression of HPIP in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC).
Patients and methods: Immunohistochemical method was performed using 42 normal ovarian specimens and 145 specimens with EOC. The correlations of HPIP expression with the clinicopathological factors and prognosis of EOC patients were evaluated. Statistical analyses were performed using the chi-square test, multivariate Cox proportional hazard, and Kaplan–Meier method.
Results: HPIP expression in EOC was higher than that in normal tissues (P <0.001). HPIP expression was significantly associated with histological grade, International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage, and lymphatic metastasis of EOC (P <0.05). Patients with high HPIP expression had poorer overall survival and disease-free survival (P <0.001) compared with patients with low HPIP expression. Multivariate Cox analysis demonstrated that HPIP was an independent factor for overall survival and disease-free survival (P <0.05).
Conclusion: HPIP may be a valuable biomarker for predicting the prognosis of EOC patients and may serve as a potential target for cancer therapy.
Keywords: hematopoietic pre-B-cell leukemia transcription factor-interacting protein, epithelial ovarian cancer, immunohistochemistry, prognosis