Expression of the cell cycle inhibitor p27KIP1 is a new prognostic marker associated with survival in epithelial ovarian tumors.

This case-control study was designed to identify factors associated with long-term survival. We examined two groups of patients with epithelial ovarian cancer, one group of long-term survivors (> 5 years) and one group of short-term survivors (< 2 years), for levels of expression of p53 and p27KIP1 proteins (as both proteins have been shown to be independent prognostic markers in tumors other than ovary) and the relationship with patient survival. Our findings show that p27KIP1 expression, in contrast to p53 expression, is positively associated with long-term survival in univariate analysis (P = 0.001), in analyses stratified by residual disease (P = 0.02) or performance status (P = 0.02), the two strongest prognostic factors for ovarian cancer, as well as multivariate analysis (P = 0.002) adjusting simultaneously for age, tumor stage, residual disease, performance status, and grade of differentiation. Therefore, immunostaining for levels of p27KIP1 expression may have potential as a new prognostic factor in the management of ovarian cancer.