nm23 expression in advanced and borderline ovarian carcinoma

Twenty-four advanced (surgical stage III and IV) ovarian carcinomas and 15 borderline ovarian tumours were studied for the overexpression of nm23 and HER-2/neu (c-erb-B2) by means of immunohistochemistry on sections from routinely processed, paraffin-embedded, archival tumour blocks, using the NCL-nm23 and the NCL-CB11 monoclonal antibodies and the streptavidin-biotin-peroxidase technique. Significantly more advanced ovarian carcinomas (p = 0.034) expressed high levels of nm23 when compared to borderline tumours. HER-2/neu (c-erb-B2) expression, as could be expected, was also significantly more frequent in advanced ovarian carcinomas (p = 0.006). We were not able to find the previously reported association between nm23 and HER-2/neu overexpression in our tumours. Our results on nm23 overexpression in ovarian cancer are coincident with those previously reported using nm23-mRNA measurements on fresh ovarian tissues. Thus, ovarian carcinoma seems to belong to the group of tumours, like colon carcinoma and neuroblastoma, in which nm23 overexpression is associated with a more malignant phenotype. Immunohistochemistry performed on archival samples from ovarian carcinomas seems adequate for the demonstration of nm23 overexpression in ovarian cancer. This opens the possibility for larger studies on series of patients with a closed follow-up, which could help to establish the role of this gene in this kind of tumour.