Differential expression of F-box and leucine-rich repeat protein 22 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 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 F-box and leucine-rich repeat protein 22, FBXL22, as among the genes whose expression was most different in epithelial ovarian cancer as compared to the normal fallopian tube. FBXL22 expression was significantly lower in high-grade serous ovarian tumors relative to normal fallopian tube. These data indicate that expression of FBXL22 is perturbed in epithelial ovarian cancers broadly and in ovarian cancers of the HGSC subtype. FBXL22 may be relevant to pathways underlying ovarian cancer initiation (transformation) or progression.