Expression and clinical significance of apolipoprotein D in epithelial ovarian carcinomas

Apolipoprotein D is a protein component of the human plasma lipid transport system but is also associated with a more favorable prognosis in women with breast cancer. This retrospective study was undertaken to examine the tumoral expression of apolipoprotein D in epithelial ovarian cancer and to analyze the possible correlation with tumor and patient characteristics as well as androgen receptors and their prognostic significance.

Immunohistochemical evaluation was used to examine apolipoprotein D expression in paraffin blocks from 68 epithelial ovarian carcinomas.

A total of 18 (26.4%) tumors stained positively. No significant correlation was found between apolipoprotein D expression and patient or tumor characteristics and androgen receptor status. However, apolipoprotein D expression was significantly associated with prognosis in patients with residual tumor greater than 1 cm. Thus, patients with apolipoprotein-D-negative tumors had a poorer overall survival than those with apolipoprotein-D-positive tumors (P = 0.039). In addition, multivariate analysis demonstrated that apolipoprotein D expression was an independent prognostic factor with initial tumor size in this group of patients (P = 0.005).

Our results led us to consider the existence of apolipoprotein D expression by a significative percentage of ovarian carcinomas, and this protein expression might be of clinical usefulness for identifying lesions with different evolution.