Versican in epithelial ovarian cancer: relation to hyaluronan, clinicopathologic factors and prognosis.

Versican, a proteoglycan previously reported to increase in other malignant tumours, was studied immunohistochemically in 299 primary epithelial ovarian cancers, their 43 metastases and 6 normal ovaries to evaluate its prognostic value and relation to hyaluronan, another extracellular matrix molecule increased in cancer and a binding partner of versican. The stainings were scored according to the area percentage of strong versican signal of total peri- and intratumoural stroma as low (<15%) or high (>or=15%). Epithelial staining of the tumours was scored as positive or negative. Low and high area percentage of strong stromal versican staining were observed in 133 and 166 carcinomas, respectively. A low area percentage of strong stromal versican staining correlated with mucinous histology (p = 0.019) and early International Federation of Gynecologists and Obstetritians (FIGO) stage (p < 0.0005), whereas a high percentage was associated with reduced 5-year survival rate of the patients (44% vs. 32%; p = 0.032). Versican was associated with the cancer cells in 151 tumours and correlated with clear cell histology (p < 0.0005), early FIGO stage (p = 0.049) and increased recurrence-free survival (63% vs. 47%; p = 0.032). However, in Cox's multivariate analyses with the conventional prognostic factors included, neither stromal nor cancer cell-associated versican reached a significant prognostic value. Versican is thus enriched in the malignant stroma surrounding and promoting the growth of ovarian cancer, probably acting with hyaluronan, and associates with unfavourable prognosis but does not constitute an independent indicator of patient survival. Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.