Prognostic Significance of COX-2, NF-κB, WT-1 and PTEN Expression in Malignant Peritoneal Mesothelioma

Objective  To investigate the expression of COX-2, NF-κB, WT-1 and PTEN in malignant peritoneal mesothelioma(MPM) tissues and their relationship with clinical prognosis.

Methods  We chose 33 cases of MPM diagnosed by pathology and immunohistochemistry from Jan. 2011 to Dec. 2013. We detected the expression of COX-2, NF-κB, WT-1 and PTEN in peritoneal tissues by immunohistochemistry SP method and analysed the relationship of four markers and age, gender, elevated platelet, asbestos exposure, serum CA125 expression, ascites, lymph node metastasis, clinical stage, etc. All patients were followed up to understand the relationship between the markers and the prognosis.

Results  Immunohistochemically, positive COX-2, NF-κB, WT-1 and PTEN expression rates were 63.64%, 51.52%, 72.73% and 21.21% in MPM samples, respectively. However, four markers were not related to age, gender, elevated platelet, asbestos exposure, serum CA125 expression, ascites, lymph node metastasis or clinical stage(P>0.05). The expression of COX-2 and NF-κB were negatively correlated to PTEN respectively. Survival analysis showed the survival time of the patients with negative PTEN expression was short, while the survival time of those with positive COX-2 and NF-κB expression was short. PTEN was the independent prognostic factor of MPM.

Conclusion  The patients with COX-2(+)/NF-κB(+) are at higher risk of poor prognosis. PTEN may be useful independent prognostic factor of MPM.