Oncogenic Fli-1 is a potential prognostic marker for the progression of epithelial ovarian cancer

Background: Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecologic malignancy, but its etiology remains poorly understood. This study investigated the role of Fli-1 in ovarian carcinogenesis and disease survival. Methods: Fli-1 protein expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry in 104 primary epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) patients with known follow-up data and 20 controls. Correlation between Fli-1 expression and clinical characteristics was evaluated with the logistic regression. Kaplan Meier analysis was used to assess the impact of Fli-1 expression on overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). Cell proliferation and migration assay were used to explore the function of Fli-1 in ovarian cancer cells. Results: Fli-1 was expressed in 74% cases and up-regulated in EOC tissues compared with normal control tissues (p< 0.05). The high expression of Fli-1 was significantly associated with advanced tumor stage, positive lymph nodal involvement, and poor OS and DFS (p< 0.05). Further analysis showed Fli-1 is an independent prognostic factor for OS and DFS. Down-regulation of Fli-1 inhibited cell proliferation but did not affect cell migration in SKOV3 cells. Conclusions: This study revealed that Fli-1 played an essential role in the development and progression of ovarian cancers. Its overexpression is intimately related to malignant phenotypes and poor clinical outcome, suggesting that Fli-1 is a potential prognostic marker and therapeutic molecular target in ovarian cancer.