Prognostic Values of Transforming Growth Factor-Beta Subtypes in Ovarian Cancer

Abstract EN

Purpose.

To explore the potential role of the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) subtypes in the prognosis of ovarian cancer patients.

Materials and Methods.

The prognostic roles of individual TGF-β subtypes in women with ovarian cancer were retrieved from the Kaplan-Meier plotter (KM plotter) database.

In addition, the Oncomine database and immunohistochemistry were used to observe the mRNA and protein expression of TGF-β subtypes between human ovarian carcinoma and normal ovarian samples, respectively.

Results.

TGF-β1 and TGF-β4 were totally uncorrelated with survival outcomes in women with ovarian cancer.

Increased TGF-β2 and TGF-β3 mRNA expression was markedly related to unfavorable prognosis, especially in women with serous, poorly differentiated, and late-stage ovarian carcinoma.

High expression levels of TGF-β2 were related to worse progression-free survival (PFS) while TGF-β3 was linked to unfavorable overall survival (OS) and PFS in women with TP53-mutated ovarian cancer.

TGF-β2 was associated with poor OS and PFS from treatment with chemotherapy with platins, Taxol, or a platin+Taxol.

However, overexpression of TGF-β3 was associated with poor OS from the use of platins and poor PFS of Taxol or a platin+Taxol in women with ovarian carcinoma.

Furthermore, the expression of TGF-β2 mRNA and protein was higher but only TGF-β3 mRNA expression was higher in cancerous tissues than in normal ovarian samples.

Conclusion.

Higher expression of TGF-β2 functioned as a significant predictor of poor prognosis in women with ovarian cancer, especially those with TP53 mutations or who were undergoing chemotherapy with platins, Taxol, or a platin+Taxol.