Expression of HIPK2 in cervical cancer: correlation with clinicopathology and prognosis

Homeodomain-interacting protein kinase 2 (HIPK2) is a member of a recently identified nuclear protein kinase family that act as co-repressors for homeodomain transcription factors. This study was carried out to investigate the expression of HIPK2, and its correlation with clinicopathological features and prognosis in cervical carcinoma.

Forty-three cases of cervical cancer and ten cases of normal cervical tissue were analysed retrospectively between January 2002 and December 2006 at the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of Fudan University. The expression of HIPK2, p53 and proliferating cell nuclear antigen was detected by immunohistochemistry. The correlation of HIPK2 and clinicopathological factors as well as prognosis was statistically analysed.

The nuclear positive rate of HIPK2 was significantly higher in the cervical cancer group than in the control group (76.7% vs 10.0%, P < 0.05). The expression of HIPK2 was significantly lower in stage I tumours than in stage II/III tumours (60.9% vs 95.0%, P < 0.05), indicating that HIPK2 expression is correlated with the development of cervical cancer. HIPK2 expression was higher in cervical adenocarcinoma than that in squamous cell carcinoma (90.0% vs 72.7%), but there was no significant difference. The positive rate of HIPK2 in well, moderately and poorly differentiated carcinoma was 83.3, 73.3, 100%, respectively, but the difference was not significant. There was no significant difference between the expression of HIPK2 protein and prognosis. HIPK2 expression was significantly higher than p53 in cervical cancer (P < 0.05), but there was no correlation between HIPK2 and p53.

The expression of HIPK2 may play an important role in cervical carcinogenesis.