Expression of PTEN and P-Akt protein and their relationship with clinical features of epithelial ovarian cancer

Objective To investigate the expression of PTEN and P-Akt protein in epithelial ovarian carcinoma and their relationship with clinical features.Methods The expression of PTEN and P-Akt protein was detected in 25 cases of normal ovary,25 cases of benign ovarian tumor,19 cases of borderline ovarian tumor and 69 cases of epithelial ovarian cancer by immuohistochemical method.Results Compared with normal and benign ovarian tumor tissues,PTEN expression decreased in the borderline ovarian tissues,but there was no significant difference between 3 groups.PTEN expression was lowest in ovarian cancer tissues(P0.05).While the tendency of P-Akt expression was opposite to that of PTEN.The expression of PTEN in epithelial ovarian cancer at stage Ⅰ-Ⅱ,high and middle grade and negative lymph node metastasis were higher than that at stage Ⅲ-Ⅳ,low grade,positive lymph node metastasis,respectively,while P-Akt expression in the former was lower than the latter(P0.05).Conclusion The results suggest that the expression of PTEN and P-Akt may play an important role in the initiation,development and prognosis of ovarian cancer.