Proteomic profiling of ovarian clear cell carcinomas identifies prognostic biomarkers for chemotherapy

Clear cell ovarian carcinoma (CCOC) is a relatively rare subtype of ovarian cancer (OC) with high degree of resistance to standard chemotherapy. Little is known about the underlying molecular mechanisms, and it remains a challenge to predict its prognosis after chemotherapy. Here, we first analyzed the proteome of 35 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) CCOC tissue specimens from a cohort of 32 patients with CCOC (H1 cohort) and characterized 8697 proteins using data-independent acquisition mass spectrometry (DIA-MS). We then performed proteomic analysis of 28 fresh frozen (FF) CCOC tissue specimens from an independent cohort of 24 patients with CCOC (H2 cohort), leading to the identification of 9409 proteins with DIA-MS. After bioinformatics analysis, we narrowed our focus to 15 proteins significantly correlated with the recurrence free survival (RFS) in both cohorts. These proteins are mainly involved in DNA damage response, extracellular matrix (ECM), and mitochondrial metabolism. Parallel reaction monitoring (PRM)-MS was adopted to validate the prognostic potential of the 15 proteins in the H1 cohort and an independent confirmation cohort (H3 cohort). Interferon-inducible transmembrane protein 1 (IFITM1) was observed as a robust prognostic marker for CCOC in both PRM data and immunohistochemistry (IHC) data. Taken together, this study presents a CCOC proteomic data resource and a single promising protein, IFITM1, which could potentially predict the recurrence and survival of CCOC.