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Expression of Beclin 1 and LC3 in FIGO stage I–II cervical squamous cell carcinoma and relationship to survival

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Tumor Biology

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression of autophagy-related proteins Beclin 1 and LC3 in cervical normal epithelial cells and squamous cancer cells, and to evaluate the prognostic significance of Beclin 1 and LC3 expression in FIGO stage I–II cervical squamous cell carcinoma. The immunohistochemical expression of Beclin 1 and LC3 were evaluated in 26 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded cervical normal tissue samples and 50 tumor samples of FIGO stage I–II cervical squamous cell carcinoma, respectively. Correlations with clinicopathologic characteristics were determined by Chi-square test. The prognostic impact of Beclin 1 and LC3 expression in regard to overall survival was determined by Kaplan–Meier method. Cervical normal squamous epithelial cells and cancer cells expressed high Beclin 1 immunoreactivity in 96.2 % (25/26) and 28.0 % (14/50) of patients (p = 0.000), and expressed high LC3 immunoreactivity in 76.9 % (20/26) and 26.0 % (13/50) of patients, respectively (p = 0.000). The expression of both Beclin 1 and LC3 were not associated with age, FIGO stage, pathologic differentiation, and lymph node metastasis. The 3-year overall survival (OS) rates with low and high expressions of Beclin 1 were 72.2 and 100.0 %, respectively (p = 0.034). The 3-year OS rates with low and high expressions of LC3 were 75.7 and 92.3 %, respectively (p = 0.224). These results show that expression level of both Beclin-1 and LC3 were significantly lower in cervical squamous cancer cells than normal squamous epithelial cells. The expression of Beclin 1 and LC3 may have prognostic significance in early stage cervical squamous cell carcinoma.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by grants from the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions and Jiangsu Province’s Key Medical Department in 2011.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Gynecology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Weipei Zhu & Xiaohong Pan

  2. Department of Pathology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Feng Li & Yongshen Zhang

  3. Department of Radiotherapy and Oncology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, 1055 Sanxiang Road, Suzhou, 215004, Jiangsu Province, People’s Republic of China

    Xueguan Lu

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  1. Weipei Zhu
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  2. Xiaohong Pan
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  3. Feng Li
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  4. Yongshen Zhang
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  5. Xueguan Lu
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Correspondence to Xueguan Lu.

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Zhu, W., Pan, X., Li, F. et al. Expression of Beclin 1 and LC3 in FIGO stage I–II cervical squamous cell carcinoma and relationship to survival. Tumor Biol. 33, 1653–1659 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-012-0421-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-012-0421-4

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