Differential expression of prune homolog 2 in human epithelial ovarian cancer.

Abstract

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the most lethal gynecologic cancer (1). We performed discovery of genes associated with epithelial ovarian cancer and of the high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC) subtype, using published and public microarray data (2, 3) to compare global gene expression profiles of normal ovary or fallopian tube with that of primary tumors from women diagnosed with epithelial ovarian cancer or HGSC. We identified the gene encoding prune homolog 2, PRUNE2, as among the genes whose expression was most different in epithelial ovarian cancer as compared to the normal fallopian tube. PRUNE2 expression was significantly lower in high-grade serous ovarian tumors relative to normal fallopian tube. PRUNE2 expression correlated with progression-free survival in patients with ovarian cancer. These data indicate that expression of PRUNE2 is perturbed in epithelial ovarian cancers broadly and in ovarian cancers of the HGSC subtype. PRUNE2 may be relevant to pathways underlying ovarian cancer initiation (transformation) or progression.