Motility-associated proteins in ovarian cancer: relation with clinical-morphological

The expression of motility-associated proteins in 18 patients with epithelial ovarian cancer was investigated. The study of actin-binding proteins (Arp3, gelsolin, cofilin-1 and thymosin-β4) and p45 Ser β-catenin revealed peculiarities of their expression with respect to clinical-morphological parameters of ovarian cancer. Differences in cofilin expression with respect to histological type of the tumor were shown. The expression levels of Arp3, the most important protein of Arp2/3 actin-branching complex, and cofilin, which is able to break down actin filaments, were higher in peritoneal metastases than in omental metastases. It was found that the level of p45 Ser β-catenin and the percentage of cells expressing gelsolin and thymosin-4 were associated with pathological response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACH) and were significantly higher in patients with complete and partial responses as compared to those observed in patients with no response. The obtained results can be used for identification of new prognostic factors, metastasis markers and predictive marker of pathological response after NACT.