High level of WAVE1 expression is associated with tumor aggressiveness and unfavorable prognosis of epithelial ovarian cancer

Objectives: Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein family verprolin-homologous protein 1 (WAVE1) has been shown to promote cancer invasion and metastasis. However, no evidence has been found to identify the role of WAVE1 in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). This study aims to determine the effect of WAVE1 expression and investigate a possible relationship between WAVE1 and prognosis in EOC.

Methods: WAVE1 protein level was measured in 223 EOC specimens by immunohistochemical staining and 46 EOC specimens by Western blot analysis. Expression of WAVE1 in ovarian cancer cell lines was evaluated by Western blot analysis and immunofluorescence. Survival analysis was performed to assess the correlation between WAVE1 expression and survival.

Results: Immunohistochemical staining and Western blot analysis showed that WAVE1 was overexpressed in EOC compared with samples from a non-invasive ovarian tumor and normal ovaries (P<0.05). Furthermore, expression of WAVE1 was significantly associated with advanced FIGO stage, poor grade, serum Ca-125 and residual tumor size (P<0.05). By Western blot analysis, WAVE1 expression was detected in four ovarian cancer cell lines. Immunofluorescence was performed to demonstrate WAVE1 expression in SKOV3 and 3AO cell lines. Survival analysis showed that patients with low WAVE1 staining had a significantly better survival compared to patients with high WAVE1 staining (P<0.05). In multivariate analysis, WAVE1 overexpression, advanced stage and suboptimal surgical debulking were independent prognostic factors of poor survival.

Conclusions: Our present study finds that WAVE1 overexpression is associated with an unfavorable prognosis. WAVE1 is an independent prognostic factor for EOC, which suggests that it is a novel and crucial predictor for EOC metastasis.