Abstract

AIMS--To assess whether the overexpression of five dominant oncogene encoded proteins is crucial to the pathogenesis of ovarian carcinoma and whether this provides any useful prognostic information. METHODS--The expression of the insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (ILGFR 1), epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), and the c-erbB-2, c-ras, and c-myc products was studied by multiparameter flow cytometry in 80 patients with epithelial ovarian cancer for whom long term follow up was available. RESULTS--Overexpression of ILGFR 1, EGFR, c-erbB-2, c-ras and c-myc was found in, respectively, nine of 80 (11%), 10 of 80 (12%), 19 of 80 (24%), 16 of 80 (20%) and 28 of 80 (35%) ovarian carcinomas. The levels of expression of ILGFR 1, EGFR, c-erbB-2 and c-ras were significantly higher in the tumours of patients with recurrent or persistent disease after chemotherapy than in the tumours of patients at initial presentation (p < 0.02). Multivariate analysis showed that residual tumour (p < 0.001), FIGO stage (p = 0.002), EGFR overexpression (p = 0.030) and previous chemotherapy (p = 0.034) were independent variables for predicting survival. CONCLUSIONS--Overexpression of these oncoproteins only occurs in a small proportion of ovarian carcinomas but may have an important role in the progression of the disease.