Beclin-1 Expression is a Predictor of Clinical Outcome in Patients with Serous Ovarian Carcinoma and Correlated to Hypoxia-Inducible Factor (HIF)-1α Expression

In the present study, we examined the relationship between Beclin-1 expression and HIF-1α expression in 60 cases of serous ovarian carcinoma (SOC) using immunohistochemistry. We followed our patients for 3 years, analyzed the relationship between markers expression, clinic-pathological criteria and the prognosis of patients. the expression of Beclin-1 in SOC was significantly negatively correlated with advanced age of the patients (p=0.003), higher grade (p=0.002)& advanced stage of the tumor, presence of distant metastases (p<0.001), peritoneal implants (p=0.006), L.N metastases (p=0.004), bilaterality (p=0.03) and ascites (p=.005), the expression of HIF-1α in SOC was significantly positively correlated with advanced age of the patients (p=0.002), higher grade of the tumor, presence of peritoneal implants (p=0.006), advanced stage of the tumor (p=0.007), presence of distant metastases (p=0.012), peritoneal implants (p=0.044), L.N metastases (p<0.001)