BRCA1 Protein Expression in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer and Associated Clinicopathological Factors in Uganda

Background: BRCA1 gene dysfunction seen in epithelial ovarian carcinomas often results from germline mutations, somatic mutations, and promoter methylation. Identification of tumors with loss of BRCA1 protein expression has shown to have therapeutic and prognostic implications. The aim of this study was to determine the expression of BRCA1 protein in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) and the associated clinicopathological characteristics. Methods and Results: This was a cross-sectional laboratory-based study that used paraffin-embedded tissue blocks of patients histologically diagnosed with EOC from January 2010 to August 2018. Tissue sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) for histological confirmation and with immunohistochemistry (IHC) using a mouse-derived monoclonal antibody MS110 for BRCA1 protein expression. The association between BRCA1 protein expression and independent variables was determined using Pearson's Chi-square test. A total of 104 tissue blocks from patients with EOC were included in the study with a mean age of 48.7 ± 12.8 years. Serous tumors were the most common which comprised 74.0% (77/104) of all the tumors and majority of them 75.3% (58/77) were high grade. Loss of expression of BRCA1 protein expression was found in 33.7% (33/98) of all the cases. There was no statistically significant association between BRCA1 expression and age of patients, tumor grade, and histological subtype. Conclusion: There is a high expression of altered BRCA1 expression in tissues of EOC. Although it has not shown association with age of patients, histology types, and tumor grade, further studies need to assess its influence of the survival of cancer patients with EOC.