No relationship is indicated between FHIT expression and clinicopathologic prognostic parameters in early stage cervical carcinoma

In this study we investigated FHIT (Fragile Histidine Triad) protein alterations in cervical carcinomas to assess the relation of this gene with cervical cancer. Eighty-eight patients with surgically treated FIGO (International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics) stage IB carcinomas of the cervix were included in this study. Clinicopathologic prognostic factors were compared with FHIT expression status. Disease-free and overall survival was evaluated according to prognostic factors and FHIT expression. The FHIT gene was found to be depressed in 53% (47/88) of the tumors. None of the clinicopathologic prognostic parameters showed a correlation with FHIT expression. Univariate survival analysis with the Kaplan-Meier method showed that only the age of the patient is significantly correlated with disease-free survival. Interestingly, when the same analysis was done for 5-year overall survival; diameter of the primary tumor, depth of invasion, occurrence of lymph node involvement, and number of metastatic lymph nodes were found to be statistically significant. Furthermore, multivariate analysis with Cox regression revealed that lymph node involvement was the only independent variable for 5-year overall survival. In the present study there was no statistical correlation between FHIT expression and clinicopathologic prognostic factors or survival figures of the patients. These findings may be explained with the carcinogenic role of FHIT in tumoral progression but not in the tumoral development that takes place after the carcinogenetic period.