Background: The basement membrane is the first structural barrier that carcinoma cells must penetrate to pass from one compartment to another. In serous papillary cystadenocarcinoma of the ovary, Laminin alpha 1, beta 2, beta 3 and gamma 2 chains are present in about 50% of the neoplastic tissue. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the prognostic significance of the expression of Laminin in patients suffering from malignant serous surface epithelial-stromal tumors of the ovary.
Patients and methods: Seventy tumor tissue specimens of consecutive patients treated by surgery between 1985 and 1995 for ovarian cancer, FIGO stages I-IV, were investigated by immunohistochemical methods.
Results: Sixteen tumors (22.9%) showed immunohistochemical staining of the cytoplasm and 55 (78.6%) staining of the basement membrane in neoplastic tissue. In multivariate analysis, basement membrane staining of Laminin showed a statistically significant influence with reduced overall survival (p = 0.029).
Conclusion: The search for additional prognostic factors in ovarian cancer patients is still ongoing. The basement membrane staining of Laminin in malignant serous epithelial tumors of the ovary has been found to be valuable for further investigation.