Expression of RRBP1 in epithelial ovarian cancer and its clinical significance

Hematopoietic pre-B cell leukemia transcription factor (PBX)-interacting protein (RRBP1) has been shown to participate in various aspects of malignancies. The clinical significance of RRBP1 and its involvement in the epithelial ovarian cancer have yet to be studied. The aim of the present study was to investigate the expression of RRBP1 in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) and its relationship with clinical characteristics and prognosis. We evaluated the mRNA and protein expression levels of RRBP1 by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and Western blotting (n = 45). Immunohistochemistry and data analysis were used to examine the relationship between the expression level of RRBP1 and the clinicopathological features and prognosis of epithelial ovarian cancer. RRBP1 was highly expressed in EOC (P< 0.001). The specimens were obtained from 108 patients undergoing surgery to treat epithelial ovarian cancer. RRBP1 expression was obviously related to Federation International of Gynecologie and Obstetrigue (FIGO) stage (P< 0.001), histological grade (P = 0.021), histological type (P = 0.004), and lymph node metastasis (P = 0.012) but was not related to patient age (P = 0.385) or preoperative carbohydrate antigen125 (CA125) level (P = 0.238). Univariate analysis showed that the prognosis of the epithelial ovarian cancer patients was related to the age of the patients, the FIGO stage, and the expression level of RRBP1 (P< 0.05). Patients with higher RRBP1 expression had significantly worse overall survival (OS) (P = 0.003) and disease-free survival (DFS) (P< 0.001). Multivariate survival analysis proved that RRBP1 was an independent predictor of OS (P = 0.003) and DFS (P< 0.001). RRBP1 plays an important role in predicting the prognosis of EOC. These results show that RRBP1 is a potential target for the treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer.