Prognostic significance of α5β1-integrin expression in cervical cancer.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association of expression of α5β1-integrin with clinicopathologic features and prognosis in cervical cancer. Levels of α5β1-integrin in normal cervical mucosa and cervical cancer tissue were detected with immunohistochemistry. Survival analysis by the Kaplan-Meier method was performed to assess prognostic significance. α5β1-integrin expression was detected in 84.6% (143/169) cervical cancer samples, significantly different from that in normal cervical mucosa (P < 0.05). Positive expression rates of α5β1-integrin in patients with poor histologic differentiation, lymph node metastasis, and recurrence were elevated. Using Kaplan-Meier analysis, a comparison of survival curves of low versus high expression of α5β1-integrin revealed a highly significant difference in human cervical cancer cases (P < 0.05), suggesting that overexpression of α5β1-integrin is associated with a worse prognosis.The α5β1-integrin promotes angiogenesis and associates with lymph node metastasis, vascular invasion and poor prognosis of cervical cancer. The current study indicated that α5β1-integrin may be an independent prognostic factor for cervical cancer patients.