PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - R. SHIMOGAI AU - J. KIGAWA AU - H. ITAMOCHI AU - T. IBA AU - Y. KANAMORI AU - T. OISHI AU - M. SHIMADA AU - S. SATO AU - W. KAWAGUCHI AU - N. TERAKAWA TI - Expression of hypoxia-inducible factor 1α gene affects the outcome in patients with ovarian cancer AID - 10.1111/j.1525-1438.2007.01055.x DP - 2008 May 01 TA - International Journal of Gynecologic Cancer PG - 499--505 VI - 18 IP - 3 4099 - http://ijgc.bmj.com/content/18/3/499.short 4100 - http://ijgc.bmj.com/content/18/3/499.full SO - Int J Gynecol Cancer2008 May 01; 18 AB - We conducted study to determine whether and how the expression of the hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) gene relates to outcome in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer. A total of 66 patients with epithelial ovarian cancer, who underwent primary surgery followed by platinum-based chemotherapy, were entered into this study. We confirmed the expression of HIF-1α and the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) by immunohistochemistry. To determine the quantity of HIF-1α and VEGF expression, messenger RNA of each gene was measured by real-time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction. The cutoff values were determined by the receiver-operating characteristic curve according to survival. The protein expressions of HIF-1α and VEGF were strongly observed in the cancer cells. The cutoff value of HIF-1α and VEGF gene expression was 6.0 and 3.0, respectively. The expression of HIF-1α did not relate to clinical stage, but tumor with low VEGF expression was observed more frequently in stage I patients. The response rate to chemotherapy did not differ between high and low expression of both genes. The overall survival for patients with high expression of HIF-1α was significantly lower, but disease-free survival did not differ between high and low expression of HIF-1α, whereas both overall and disease-free survival for patients with high expression of VEGF were significantly lower. Multivariate analysis revealed that FIGO stage and HIF-1α expression were independent prognostic factors but that VEGF was not. The present study suggested that the expression level of HIF-1α could be an independent prognostic factor in epithelial ovarian cancer