Elevated Levels of Lewis Y and Integrin α5β1 Correlate with Chemotherapeutic Drug Resistance in Epithelial Ovarian Carcinoma

Objective: To measure Lewis y and integrin alpha(5)beta(1) expression in epithelial ovarian carcinoma and to correlate the levels of these molecules with ovarian carcinoma chemotherapy and prognosis. Methods: The study population included 34 ovarian carcinoma patients with chemotherapeutic drug-resistance, six partially drug-sensitive cases, and 52 drug-sensitive cases (92 total). Immunochemistry was used to determine expression of Lewis y antigen and integrin alpha(5)beta(1) in ovarian carcinoma tissues, and correlation of these molecules with chemotherapy resistance was further investigated, Multi-factor logistic regression analysis was applied to investigate: age, surgical stage, grade, subtype of patient cases, metastasis of lymph nodes, residual tumor size, expression levels of Lewis y antigen and integrin alpha(5)beta(1) correlation with ovarian carcinoma chemotherapy resistance. Results: The expression rates of Lewis y antigen and integrins alpha(5) and beta(1) were significantly greater in the drug-resistant group (91.17%, 85.29%, 88.24%) than the partially sensitive (50.00%, 33.33%, 50.00%) or sensitive groups (61.54%, 57.69%, 55.77%). Binary logistic regression analysis revealed that surgical stage, residual tumor size, and expression of integrin alpha(5) and Lewis y in ovarian carcinoma tissues were independent risk factors for chemotherapeutic drug resistance. Conclusions: Overexpression of Lewis y and integrin alpha(5) are strong risk factors for chemotherapeutic drug resistance in ovarian carcinoma patients.