Expression and clinicopathological significance of hematopoietic pre-B cell leukemia transcription factor-interacting protein in cervical carcinoma

Hematopoietic pre-B-cell leukemia transcription factor(PBX)-interacting protein (HPIP) is overexpressed in various malignancies, but its role in cervical cancer (CC) remains unknown. This study investigated the correlations of HPIP expression with clinicopathological factors and prognosis of cervical carcinoma patients. Expression of HPIP was detected in CC from 167 patients along with 45 corresponding normal cervical specimens by immunohistochemistry. HPIP immunoreactivity was overexpressed in CC cases compared with that in normal endometrium (P < 0.05). High HPIP expression was positively correlated with FIGO stage, histological grade, lymph node metastasis and recurrence (P < 0.05). Patients with high HPIP expression exhibited significantly poorer overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) than patients with low HPIP expression (both P < 0.001). Cox multivariate analysis showed that high HPIP expression was an independent prognostic factor for both OS [hazard ratio (HR) = 8.791, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 2.098-36.826; P = 0.003 and DFS of patients with CC (HR = 10.485, 95% CI = 2.512-36.826; P = 0.001)]. We identified HPIP protein expression as a novel independent poor prognostic indicator in CC.