Differential expression of leucine-rich repeat-containing 59 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 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 leucine-rich repeat-containing 59, LRRC59, as among the genes whose expression was most different in epithelial ovarian cancer as compared to the normal fallopian tube. LRRC59 expression was significantly higher in high-grade serous ovarian tumors relative to normal fallopian tube. LRRC59 expression correlated with progression-free survival in patients with ovarian cancer. These data indicate that expression of LRRC59 is perturbed in epithelial ovarian cancers broadly and in ovarian cancers of the HGSC subtype. LRRC59 may be relevant to pathways underlying ovarian cancer initiation (transformation) or progression.