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Comment |
Elf-1 is a member of the Ets transcription factor family that regulates the genes involved in cellular
growth and differentiation. Enhanced expression of Elf-1 has been reported in prostate cancer,
breast cancer, and osteosarcoma. The aim of this study was to elucidate the involvement of Elf-1 in
ovarian carcinogenesis. Takai N, et al 2003
analyzed serial frozen tissue sections from 26 patients with epithelial
ovarian carcinoma and 10 patients with benign cystadenoma of ovary for Elf-1 protein expression,
using fluorescent immunohistochemistry. Elf-1 was weakly detected in some benign
cystadenomas (0-5.5%). There was, however, abundant Elf-1 immunoreactivity in the nucleus of the
ovarian carcinoma cells along with a little cytoplasmic staining. Scoring on the basis of the
percentage of nuclear-positive cells indicated that nuclear Elf-1 expression was significantly
associated with PCNA-labeling index (p=0.04), clinical stage (p<0.01), histological grade
(p<0.01), and clinical outcome (p=0.02). However, there was no relationship between Elf-1
expression and histological classification. Survival data were available for all patients and
demonstrated that Elf-1 expression was significantly associated with poor prognosis (p<0.01). Our
results demonstrate that Elf-1 expression in ovarian carcinoma correlates with the malignant
potential of this tumor.
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