Expression of Nuclear Transcription Factor Kappa B in Locally Advanced Human Cervical Cancer Treated With Definitive Chemoradiation
By: Garg AK, Jhingran A, Klopp AH, Aggarwal BB, Kunnumakkara AB, Broadus RR, Eifel PJ, Buchholz TA.

Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX.
Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2010 Mar 13.

Abstract

Purpose

Nuclear factor kappa B (NF−kappaB), a transcriptional factor that has been shown to be constitutively active in cervical cancer, is part of an important pathway leading to treatment resistance in many tumor types. The purpose of our study was to determine whether expression of NF−kappaB in pretreatment specimens and specimens taken shortly after treatment initiation correlated with outcome in cervical cancer patients treated with definitive chemoradiation.

Methods And Materials

Eighteen patients with locally advanced cervical cancer were enrolled in a study in which cervical biopsy specimens were obtained before radiation therapy and 48 h after treatment initiation. Matched biopsy specimens from 16 of these patients were available and evaluated for the nuclear expression of NF−kappaB protein by immunohistochemical staining.

Results

After a median follow−up of 43 months, there were 9 total treatment failures. Nuclear staining for NF−kappaB was positive in 3 of 16 pretreatment biopsy specimens (19%) and 5 of 16 postradiation biopsy specimens (31%). Pretreatment expression of NF−kappaB nuclear staining correlated with increased rates of local−regional failure (100% vs. 23%, p = 0.01), distant failure (100% vs. 38%, p = 0.055), disease−specific mortality (100% vs. 31%, p = 0.03), and overall mortality (100% vs. 38%, p = 0.055).

Conclusions

Our data suggest that pretreatment nuclear expression of NF−kappaB may be associated with a poor outcome for cervical cancer patients treated with chemoradiation. Although these data require validation in a larger group of patients, the results support the continued study of the relationship between NF−kappaB and outcome in patients treated for carcinoma of the cervix. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

PMID: 20231067 [PubMed − as supplied by publisher] Source: National Library of Medicine.






* Albert Einstein College of Medicine has been
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