Objective: Serous ovarian cancer is the most prevalent type of ovarian cancer. The majority of women present at an advanced stage and patient survival is poor. Resistance to chemotherapy is thought to relate to failure of tumours to undergo apoptosis. Secreted frizzled-related protein 4 (SFRP4) has been demonstrated to be involved in apoptosis in the ovary but not in ovarian tumours as yet. This study examined SFRP4 expression in ovarian cancers and correlated this with expression of beta-catenin, a main component of the wNT-signalling pathway it inhibits.
Methods: We examined 153 primary serous ovarian carcinomas for SFRP4 and B-catenin expression using immunohistochemistry on tissue microarrays and correlated this with clinical information.
Results: SFRP4 expression was inversely associated with beta-catenin expression in 84% of samples. However, high-level SFRP4 expression was not significantly associated with patient survival (p = 0.08).
Conclusion: Elevated SFRP4 expression in serous ovarian tumours appears to correlate with reduced beta-catenin expression but long-term survival appears unaffected by this.