Expression levels of TUBB3, ERCC1 and P-gp in ovarian cancer tissues and adjacent normal tissues and their clinical significance.

Purpose: To investigate the expressions of class III β-tubulin (TUBB3), nucleotide excision repair cross-complementary gene 1 (ERCC1) and P-glycoprotein (P-gp) in ovarian cancer tissues and adjacent normal tissues and their clinical significance.

Methods: Ovarian cancer patients undergoing surgical resection at the Department of Oncology of the Affiliated Hospital of Shandong Medical College from March 2012 to May 2016 were enrolled in this study, from which 166 cases of pathologically confirmed cancer tissues and 50 cases of adjacent normal tissues were collected. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to detect the messenger RNA (mRNA) expression levels of TUBB3, ERCC1 and P-gp in ovarian cancer tissues and adjacent normal tissues, and their relationships with ovarian cancer clinical stage and grade of pathological differentiation were analyzed.

Results: The expression levels of TUBB3, ERCC1 and P-gp in ovarian cancer tissues were significantly higher than those in adjacent normal tissues (p<0.05). The later the clinical stage of ovarian cancer was, the higher the expression levels of TUBB3, ERCC1 and P-gp were (p<0.05). The lower the pathological differentiation grade of ovarian cancer was, the higher the expression levels of TUBB3, ERCC1 and P-gp were (p<0.05). TUBB3, ERCC1 and P-gb were positively correlated with clinical stage and pathological differentiation grade.

Conclusion: TUBB3, ERCC1 and P-gp are involved in the occurrence and development of ovarian cancer and can be used as important indexes judging the severity of ovarian cancer, providing a reference for the occurrence and development of the disease in ovarian cancer patients in clinical practice.