Expression of caspase-3 and its relation with cell apoptosis and proliferation in epithelial ovarian tumor

OBJECTIVE:To explore the relation of caspase-3 with the occurrence and development of epithelial ovarian tumor. METHODS:One hundred and twelve cases of primary ovarian tumor were studied with immunohistochemistry and TdT-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) method to examine the expression of caspase-3, proliferating cell antigen (PCNA) and the condition of cell apoptosis.RESULTS:The positive rate of caspase-3 in malignant ovarian tumor was 44.4%, which was obviously lower than that in benign tumor (81.8%, P 0.01). The expression of caspase-3 in malignant ovarian tumor was correlated with its differentiation , stage and metastasis in lymph node(P0.05). Apoptosis index was correlated positively with proliferating index (r=0.467, P0.01) and the expression of caspase-3 (r=0.597, P0.01) . CONCLUSIONS:There is close relation between the expression of caspase-3 and cell apoptosis in epithelial ovarian tumor. Caspase-3 may participate in the regulating mechanism of cell apoptosis and may perfrom function in changing to malignance. The expression of caspase-3 have close relation with malignant degree of ovarian cancer and might be a reference of estimating the prognosis.