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

Tumor Biology volume 33, pages 1653–1659 (2012)Cite this article

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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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

Keywords

  • Cervical cancer
  • Autophagy
  • Beclin 1
  • LC3
  • Prognosis