Abstract:
Objective The current study aims to investigate the dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) mRNA expression in ovarian cancer as well as elucidate the relationship between the clinical pathologic parameters and the DHFR mRNA expression in ovarian cancer.
Method DHFR expression was detected in 80 cases of ovarian carcinoma, 50 benign ovarian cases and 30 normal controls by real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction.
Results The DHFR mRNA expression in ovarian carcinoma, benign ovarian tumor, and normal ovarian tissues was 0.584±0.234, 0.895±0.783, and 0.197±0.412, respectively, with statistically significant differences (P < 0.000, P = 0.027, P < 0.001). No relationship was found between the DHFR mRNA expression and stage or pathological grade of ovarian cancer. But DHFR mRNA expression in serous carcinoma was significantly higher than that in mucinous and endometrioid carcinoma (P = 0.000). DHFR mRNA expression in ovarian cancer was not related with the amount of ascites, lymph node metastasis, or distant metastasis (P > 0.05), but the DHFR mRNA expression in patients with omentum metastasis was lower than that in patients without omentum metastasis, with a statistically significant difference (P = 0.044). DHFR mRNA expression in patients with CR for treatment was lower than that of patients with SD or PD or PR (P < 0.001). The expression of DHFR mRNA in cisplatin-sensitive patients was lower than that in cisplatin-multidrug resistant cases(0.130 ± 0.103) vs. (0.341 ± 0.701), P = 0.011. The Youden index of the ROC curve for DHFR mRNA expression was 0.331. The median survival period of patients with DHFR mRNA expression lower than 0.331 was 16.4 months, but the median survival time of patients with DHFR mRNA expression higher than 0.331 was 44.5 months, with a statistically significant difference (P < 0.001). COX multivariate analysis showed that DHFR mRNA expression was a dependent prognostic factor (P = 0.018).
Conclusion DHFR plays a role in physiological metabolism in normal cells. A relationship exists between upregulated DHFR mRNA expression and cisplatin-multidrug resistance in ovarian cancer. DHFR mRNA expression could be used as a marker to determine cisplatin-multidrug resistance in ovarian cancer.