β -Catenin Expression Negatively Correlates with WIF1 and Predicts Poor Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Cervical Cancer

Abstract

Aberrant activation of the canonical Wnt pathway plays a significant role in cervical cancer (CC). However, limited data show the correlation between the cancer clinicopathological characteristics and the key molecules such as β-catenin and Wnt inhibitory factor 1 (WIF1). In this study, β-catenin and WIF1 expression were analyzed by immunohistochemistry for 196 patients with CC, 39 with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), and 41 with normal cervical epithelium (NCE). Significant overexpression of β-catenin was detected in CC (67.9%) when compared to CIN (43.6%) or NCE (34.1%), p<0.01, while low WIF1 expression was detected in CC (24.0%) when compared to CIN (59.0%) or NCE (58.5%), p<0.001. Negative correlation was shown between β-catenin and WIF1 expression (r=-0.637, p<0.001). In addition, multivariate analysis revealed that both lymph node metastasis and β-catenin expression were the independent prognostic factors not only for disease-free survival (HR = 5.029, p<0.001; HR = 2.588, p=0.035, resp.), but also for overall survival (HR = 5.058, p<0.001; HR = 2.873, p=0.031, resp.). Our findings indicate that, besides lymph node metastasis, β-catenin expression may also be a poor prognostic factor for CC while WIF1 could be a potential drug target for treatment of advanced CC.