Differential expression of NK2 homeobox 1 in human epithelial ovarian cancer.
Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the most lethal gynecologic cancer (1). We performed discovery of genes associated with epithelial ovarian cancer and of the high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC) subtype, using published and public microarray data (2, 3) to compare global gene expression profiles of normal ovary or fallopian tube with that of primary tumors from women diagnosed with epithelial ovarian cancer or HGSC. We identified the gene encoding NK2 homeobox 1, NKX2-1, as among the genes whose expression was most different in epithelial ovarian cancer as compared to the normal fallopian tube. NKX2-1 expression was significantly lower in high-grade serous ovarian tumors relative to normal fallopian tube. NKX2-1 expression correlated with overall survival in patients with ovarian cancer. These data indicate that expression of NKX2-1 is perturbed in epithelial ovarian cancers broadly and in ovarian cancers of the HGSC subtype. NKX2-1 may be relevant to pathways underlying ovarian cancer initiation (transformation) or progression.