Fifty consecutive patients, who achieved complete response to treatment, from a whole series of 60 cases suffering from non-metastatic localized cervical carcinoma, were prospectively included in this study from July 1999 to December 2003. Follow-up was closed in January 2011. All patients received pelvic radiation (45–64.80 Gy in 1.8–2 Gy fractions) with concomitant cisplatin at 40 mg/m2/week doses followed by brachytherapy. Oncoprotein expression was studied by immunohistochemistry in paraffin-embedded tumour tissue.
No relation was found between BCL-2 and clinicopathological variables. High MVP/IGF-1R/BCL-2 tumour expression was strongly related to poor local and regional disease-free survival (P < 0.0001), distant disease-free survival (P = 0.010), disease-free survival (P < 0.0001), and cause-specific survival (P < 0.0001). NHEJ repair protein Ku70/80 expression was significantly repressed in tumours overexpressing all three oncoproteins (P = 0.047). No differences were observed in proliferation (Ki67 expression) or P53 alteration.
BCL-2, MVP, and IGF-1R overexpression were related to poorer clinical outcome in cervical cancer patients who achieved clinical complete response to radiochemotherapy. The NHEJ repair protein Ku70/80 expression could be involved in the regulation of these oncoproteins.