Abstract
The aim of this study is to determine immunohistochemical markers with prognostic significance for disease-specific survival in patients with squamous cell cancer of the vulva. The study material consisted of slides and paraffin blocks of 50 vulvectomy specimens. A tissue microarray was constructed and stained with 16 antibodies. The impact of lymph node metastases, size of tumor, vascular space ...
Abstract
The aim of this study is to determine immunohistochemical markers with prognostic significance for disease-specific survival in patients with squamous cell cancer of the vulva. The study material consisted of slides and paraffin blocks of 50 vulvectomy specimens. A tissue microarray was constructed and stained with 16 antibodies. The impact of lymph node metastases, size of tumor, vascular space involvement, and the marker expression on disease-specific survival was calculated. In univariate analysis lymph node metastases, tumor size more than 4 cm, vascular space involvement, strong cyclooxygenase 2 expression, and absent Caspase 3 expression were significantly associated with disease-specific survival. In a multivariate analysis, poor disease-specific survival is independently associated with absent Caspase 3 expression (hazard ratio, 0.2; 95% confidence interval, 0.04-0.97; P = 0.045). Five-year survival was 86% in patients with tumors positive for Caspase 3 (n = 20) and drops to 64% in patients with Caspase 3-negative tumors (n = 30). In this test set, cyclooxygenase 2 and Caspase 3 seem to be immunohistochemical markers with prognostic significance for vulva cancer. The results have to be validated.
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