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Overexpression of RFC3 is correlated with ovarian tumor development and poor prognosis

  • Research Article
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Tumor Biology

Abstract

Replication factor C3 (RFC3) is an oncogene that can potentially predict prognosis in a variety of human cancers. RFC3 expression in ovarian carcinoma has not yet been determined. In this study, we evaluated the messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein expression levels of RFC3 in normal ovarian and ovarian carcinoma tissues using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), immunohistochemistry, and Western blots (WB). Results showed that higher RFC3 mRNA and protein levels were detected in ovarian carcinoma tissues by RT-PCR and WB. High RFC3 expression was defined as positive staining in >70 % of each tumor cell. High RFC3 expression was detected in 28.1, 17.6, 11.1, and 5.0 % of invasive carcinomas, borderline tumors, cystadenomas, and in normal ovary cells, respectively. Overexpression of RFC3 was associated with later pN status (p = 0.001), pM status (p = 0.001), and advanced International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage (p = 0.012) in ovarian carcinomas. Univariate survival analyses showed that RFC3 overexpression was also associated with shortened patient survival (mean 7.7 months in tumors with RFC3 overexpression vs 92.9 months in tumors with normal RFC3 levels; p < 0.001). In multivariate analyses, RFC3 protein levels were a significant prognostic factor for ovarian carcinoma (p < 0.001). In conclusion, our findings suggest that RFC3 protein is an important and independent biomarker with prognostic implications for patients with ovarian carcinoma.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (No. S2012010006150; No. S2012040006148) and Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province, China (No. 2011B031800056; No. 2011B031800276). Thanks are due to Forevergen Biosciences for assistance with the experiments and for valuable discussion. We are grateful to 91SCI Company for language editing assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, No. 58, Zhongshan Road II, Guangzhou, 510080, China

    Huimin Shen, Shanshan Zhao, Shuzhong Yao & Nan Jiang

  2. Cancer Center, Sun Yat-Sen University, No. 651, Dongfeng Road East, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Muyan Cai

  3. The Third Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, No. 600, Tianhe Road, Guangzhou, 510630, China

    Huan Wang & Mengxiong Li

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  1. Huimin Shen
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  2. Muyan Cai
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  3. Shanshan Zhao
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  4. Huan Wang
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  6. Shuzhong Yao
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Correspondence to Nan Jiang.

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Huimin Shen and Muyan Cai contributed equally to this work

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Shen, H., Cai, M., Zhao, S. et al. Overexpression of RFC3 is correlated with ovarian tumor development and poor prognosis. Tumor Biol. 35, 10259–10266 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-014-2216-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-014-2216-2

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