The Prognostic Value of the Hedgehog Signaling Pathway in Ovarian Cancer

The hedgehog pathway is a major regulator of cell growth and differentiation during embryogenesis and early development. The literature suggests that variations in this pathway's genes play a role in tumor progression and response to therapy. This study aimed to assess the correlation between the expression levels of selected genes of this pathway and the progression-free and overall survival of ovarian cancer patients. Using the database Kaplan-Meier plotter, which includes the gene expression and survival data of 1565 ovarian cancer patients, higher expression levels of the genes SHH, PTCH1, PTCH2, and GLI1 displayed better survival correlations, while GLI, GLI3, and SUFU correlated with adverse outcomes. Further dissection revealed a differential impact of the genes in specific clinical-histopathological categories. Notably, higher expression levels of SUFU were associated with a negative impact on ovarian cancer patients under many clinical-histopathological aspects. These results shed new light on the role of these genes in the chemoresponsiveness of ovarian cancer, especially SUFU, which could be considered a novel indicator for poor prognosis in epithelial ovarian cancer.