Evaluation of tissue expressions of kidney injury molecule-1 and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin in ovarian neoplasms

Background: Even the slightest bit of evidencehave demonstrated that elevated expressions of kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1) and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) play critical roles in tumor progression in many malignant diseases. But still a little is known about their effects on ovarian carcinogenesis. In this retrospective study, we havetargeted to investigate the positivity of KIM-1 and NGAL (if any) in a spectrum of ovarian surface epithelial neoplasms. Methods: Herein we have assessed the prognostic values of KIM-1 and NGAL tissue expressions and their relations with some clinicopathologic parameters of 128 cases with ovarian neoplasms. Results: This study group consists of cases of 34 (26.6%) benign, and 10 (7.8%) borderline serous tumors, 29 (22.7%) serous, 38 (29.7%) endometrioid and 17 (13.3%) mucinous carcinomas. KIM-1 expression was found in both tumor and inflammatory cells, but NGAL expression was detected only in inflammatory cells. Although it is known that KIM-1 biomarker is expressed at a higher rate in carcinoma cases compared to benign tumors, due to the limited number of cases any statistically significant intergroup difference could not be observed (p = 0.217). Besides, NGAL-positive inflammatory cells were detected at a statistically significantly higher rate in cases with borderline serous tumors and carcinomas (p = 0.003). Conclusions: Herein we have shown the presence of a correlation between infiltrationof NGAL—positive inflammatory cells and malignant behavior of ovarian neoplasms. In addition, we have detected the strong cytoplasmic expression of KIM-1 (or its synonym T-cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain/TIM-1), in more than one-third of the malignant ovarian neoplasms which provides supportive evidence favoringthe use of anti-TIM1 immunotherapies in the treatment of patients with KIM-1 positive ovarian neoplasms.