Significance of hypoxia in uterine cervical cancer. Multicentre study

Purpose: The aim of the study was to evaluate hypoxia markers (VEGF, GLUT-1, and HIF-1alpha) in cervical cancer tissue depending on staging (FIGO) and grading. We also analyzed the adverse effects of radiotherapy according to expression levels of hypoxic markers in the studied tissue.

Material and methods: Expression of hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha), glucose transporter 1 (GLUT-1) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF, also known as proangiogenic factor) were estimated in biopsy or surgical specimens from 106 patients diagnosed with uterine cervical cancer. Immunohistochemical methods with EbVision+ complex using monoclonal antibodies anti-VEGF and anti-HIF-1alpha and polyclonal antibody anti-GLUT-1 were applied.

Results and conclusions: Hypoxia features measured by percentage of cells undergoing reaction with antibodies anti-HIF-1alpha, anti-GLUT-1 and anti-VEGF were similar in all clinical stages; however the biggest hypoxia features were shown in low differentiated cancers G2 and G3. The 5-year survival for FIGO Stage III patients was shorter in cases with a high expression of hypoxic markers. We observed adverse effects in 45.3% of patients, which occurred more often in patients with higher expression of the studied factors. The presence of hypoxic cells is established as one of the most important factors affecting resistance against tumor radiotherapy and patient prognosis.

Hypoxia, Cervical cancer

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