Abstract:
Objective: To analyze and evaluate the correlation among the common clinico-pathologic characteristics such as age, clinical staging, pathological type, histological grading, tumor size, nodal metastasis; the biological factors such as HuR, VEGF and COX- 2; and the prognosis of early (Stage I-II) cervical carcinoma. Methods:Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the expression of HuR protein, VEGF protein and COX-2 protein in early (Stage I-II) cervical carcinoma. Univariate analysis of the factors that might be in relation to the prognosis of the early cancer patients was con-ducted. Based on these results, multi variate analysis was then conducted using the COX proportional hazards regression model.Results: We found that tumor size and the expression of HuR and COX-2 proteins are all in relation to the prognosis of early (Stage I-II) cervical cancer (all P<0.05), and all clinical characteristics such as staging, histological grading, lymph node transmission and VEGF protein expression are significantly correlated with the prognosis of early (Stage I-II) cervical cancer (all P≤0.01). Contrarily, age and pathological type are not in relation to the prognosis of early (Stage I-II) cervical cancer ( P>0.05). The cumulative five-year survival rate was significantly lower in patients with low histological grades than in those with high histological grades. The risk of death of the former was 2.948 times higher compared to the latter. So, his-tological grading is the first independent factor that affects the prognosis of early cervical cancer. VEGF expression is the next independent factor, and the relative risk is 2.801 . Conclusion:The prognosis of early (Stage I-II) cervical cancer is cor -related with clinical staging, histological grading, tumor size, nodal metastasis, the HuR protein expression, and the VEGF and COX-2 protein expressions, but not correlated with age or pathological types. Histological grade and VEGF protein ex-pression are the two most significant independent factors for prognosis of early (Stage I-II) cervical cancer.