Immunohistochemical Expression of Human Epididymis 4 (He4) in Ovarian Serous Carcinoma in Hospital Serdang from the Year 2006- 2013

Abstract

Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cause of cancer death in women worldwide and is the fourth leading cause of cancer related deaths in Malaysia. Ovarian cancer are classified based on histological types, because it is an important surrogate for genetic, prognostic, and predictive information about response to treatment. The malignant epithelial tumor, that is ovarian carcinoma (OC) is the most common group and the four most common subtypes of OC are serous, endometrioid, clear cell and mucinous. Among the OC, ovarian serous carcinoma (OSC) is the most common subtypes. Most of the women with OC presented with locally advanced disease or distant metastasized at the time of diagnosis. The two-tier grading system (also known as MDACC [M.D Anderson Cancer Center] grading system) has been accepted worldwide. Human epididymis 4 (HE4) is a new protein which is frequently overexpressed in ovarian neoplastic tissue. Previous studies have shown that there is significant difference of HE4 expression in low grade serous carcinoma (LGSC) and high grade serous carcinoma (HGSC). The aim of this study is to further evaluate the HE4 tissue expression in 2 different grades of OSC in Hospital Serdang. This is a retrospective, cross-sectional study, of 71 cases histopathologically diagnosed as OSC comprising of 48 cases of HGSC and 23 cases of LGSC. Cases were collected from Hospital Serdang, from 1st January 2006 to 31st December 2013. All cases were examined for HE4 expression by immunohistochemistry using anti-HE4 (Polyclonal rabbit antibody dilution 1:40, Abcam).