Biological Markers Evaluated for Early Cervical Cancer Diagnosis

A method for the early diagnosis and prognosis of cervical cancer has been investigated which may lead to potential gene therapy biological targets.

The expression of the anti-oncogene phosphatase and tensin (PTEN) homologue and survivin in the progression of cervical neoplasia has been elucidated based on clinic-pathological features in squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix.


Scientists at the Yangzhou University Medical College (China) enrolled for a study 20 patients with cervical ectropion and squamous metaplasia, 30 with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, and 49 with cervical squamous cell carcinoma between January 2010 and August 2011. Normal cervical epithelium from 10 people served as the control. Immunohistochemical staining was performed to detect PTEN and survivin expression in each group using a streptavidin kit (Zhongshan Golden Bridge Biotechnology, Beijing, China).

The investigators found that PTEN expression progressively decreased with the continuum from normal epithelium to squamous cell carcinoma, whereas survivin expression progressively increased. Furthermore, positive PTEN immunostaining was associated with clinical stage and tumor size. The level of PTEN expression in the metastatic pelvic lymph node group was significantly lower compared with the nonmetastatic pelvic lymph node group. Positive survivin immunostaining was associated with clinical stage and tumor size. Survivin-positive expression in the metastatic pelvic lymph node group was significantly higher compared with the nonmetastatic pelvic lymph node group.

The PTEN gene acts as a tumor suppressor gene through the action of its phosphatase protein product, while survivin is a protein encoded by the antiapoptotic gene baculoviral inhibitor of apoptosis repeat containing 5 (BIRC5). The authors concluded that positive expression levels of PTEN and survivin provide potential evaluation indices for early diagnosis and prognosis of uterine cervical cancer, and these biomarkers are also potentially promising therapeutic targets. The study was published in the June 2013 online edition of the journal the British Journal of Biomedical Science.

Related Links:
Yangzhou University Medical College
Zhongshan Golden Bridge Biotechnology