Expression of nm23-H_1 Gene in Human Cervical Cancer: Correlation with Lymph Node Metastasis and Prognosis

Objective To investigate the expression of nm23-H 1 in cervical carcinoma and its significance.Method The expression of nm23-H 1 was examined by immunohistochemical method in 88 patients with cervical cancer.Retrospective study was carried out to find the relationship between the expression of the nm23-H 1 protein and clinic pathologic factors and the prognosis.Results Positive staining rate of nm23-H 1 was 46.4%(26/56) in squamous cell carcinoma and 56.2%(18/32) in adenocarcinoma.Negative expression of nm23-H 1 was associated with a high incidence of lymph node involvement ( P 0 01) with adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix;but not in those with squamous cell carcinoma ( P 0 05).In addition,there was no significant correlation between the immunoreactivity of nm23-H 1 and clinicopathological type,tumor size ( P 0 05 respectively).By retrospectively investigation,the negative of nm23-H 1 stainmg was related significantly to a poor prognosis of the patient with cervical cancer (adenocarcinoma P 0 01 and squamous cell carcinoma P 0 05 respectively).Conclusion The Level of nm23-H 1 expression was inversely with lymph node involvement in adenocarcinoma of the cervix,but not in squamous cell carcinoma.Nm23-H 1 level may be taken as a marker in the prognostic characterization