Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
6184445 Gynecologic Oncology 2014 8 Pages PDF
Abstract

•IRF1 and its mechanistic pathway were found by global gene expression analysis to be linked to platinum resistance in OvCA.•Using TCGA and GEO data sets, IRF1 is shown to be a prognostic marker for PFS and OS survival in HGSOC.

ObjectiveHigh-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) that is resistant to platinum-based chemotherapy has a particularly poor prognosis. Response to platinum has both prognostic survival value and dictates secondary treatment strategies. Using transcriptome analysis, we sought to identify differentially expressed genes/pathways based on a tumor's platinum response for discovering novel predictive biomarkers.MethodsSeven primary HGSOC tumor samples, representing two extremes of platinum sensitivity/timing of disease recurrence, were analyzed by RNA-Seq, Ingenuity Pathways Analysis (IPA) and Upstream Regulator Analysis (URA), and used to explore differentially expressed genes and prevalent molecular and cellular processes. Progression-free and overall survival (PFS, OS) was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method in two different sample sets including GEO and TCGA data sets.ResultsIPA and URA highlighted an IRF1-driven transcriptional program (P = 0.0017; z-score of 3.091) in the platinum sensitive improved PFS group. QRT-PCR analysis of 31 HGSOC samples demonstrated a significant difference in PFS between low and high IRF1 expression groups (P = 0.048) and between groups that were platinum sensitive versus not (P = 0.016). In a larger validation data set, increased levels of IRF1 were associated with both increased PFS (P = 0.043) and OS (P = 0.019) and the effect on OS was independent of debulking status (optimal debulking, P = 0.025; suboptimal, P = 0.041).ConclusionTranscriptome analysis identifies IRF1, a transcription factor that functions both in immune regulation and as a tumor suppressor, as being associated with platinum sensitivity and an independent predictor of both PFS and OS in HGSOC.

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