Expression of thymidine phosphorylase in cervical neoplasia: correlation with clinicopathological prognostic factors

Choi, Eun Kyoung; Kim, Jae Wook; Lee, Yun Jung; Lee, Jung Gun; Kim, Dong Kyu; Kim, Young Tae; Cho, Nam Hoon

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
Angiogenesis is a critical factor in the progression of solid tumors, including cervical cancer. However, the association between the expression of thymidine phosphorylase(TP) and clinicopathological factors has scarcely been examined in cervical neoplasia. This study was performed to evaluate the level of TP expression in cervical intraepithelial neoplasia(CIN) and invasive cancer respectively, and to observe the relationship between expression of TP and various clinicopathological factors of cervical cancer.
PATIENTS AND METHODS
Total 81 cervical biopsy specimens obtained from Jan. 1995 to Aug. 1996 at YUMC were evaluated for the expression of TP : among these, 9 were pathologically confirmed as benign, 6 as CIN I, 11 as CIN II, 12 as CIN III, and 43 as invasive squamous cell carcinoma(SCC) of uterine cervix. These specimens were immunostained to examine the expression of TP and the results of immunostaining were correlated with various clinicopathological factors of cervical cancer.
RESULTS
TP expression progressively increased along a continuum from normal epithelium to invasive SCC(p<0.05) and TP expression in cancer cells was well correlated with pelvic lymph node metastasis(p<0.01), large tumor size(p<0.05) and advanced stage(p<0.05). Overall survival rate for 28 patients with TP-positive cervical cancer was significantly lower than that of 15 patients with TP-negative cervical cancer.
CONCLUSIONS
With this study, we can speculate that TP might play a role in the growth and metastatic process of cervical neoplasia and be a possible prognostic factor of cervical cancer.