Research article

Circulating soluble Fas levels and risk of ovarian cancer

Arslan Akhmedkhanov^1,2,4 , Eva Lundin⁵ , Seth Guller^1,3 , Annekatrin Lukanova^6,10 , Andrea Micheli⁸ , Yuehong Ma¹ , Yelena Afanasyeva² , Anne Zeleniuch-Jacquotte^2,4 , Vittorio Krogh⁸ , Per Lenner⁷ , Paola Muti⁹ , Sabina Rinaldi¹⁰ , Rudolf Kaaks¹⁰ , Franco Berrino⁸ , Göran Hallmans⁶ and Paolo Toniolo^1,2,4

¹Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

²Department of Environmental Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

³Department of Biochemistry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

⁴NYU Cancer Institute, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

⁵Department of Medical Biosciences/Pathology, University of Umeå, Umeå, Sweden

⁶Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine/Nutritional Research, University of Umeå, Umeå, Sweden

⁷Department of Oncology, University of Umeå, Umeå, Sweden

⁸Units of Epidemiology, Istituto Nazionale Tumori, Milan, Italy

⁹Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA

¹⁰Hormones and Cancer Group, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France

author email corresponding author email

BMC Cancer 2003, 3:33doi:10.1186/1471-2407-3-33

Published:	22 December 2003

Abstract

Background

Dysregulation of apoptosis, specifically overexpression of soluble Fas (sFas), has been proposed to play a role in the development of ovarian cancer. The main objective of the present study was to evaluate serum sFas as a potential biomarker of ovarian cancer risk.

Methods

The association between serum sFas levels and the risk of ovarian cancer was examined in a case-control study nested within three prospective cohorts in New York (USA), Umeå (Sweden), and Milan (Italy). Case subjects were 138 women with primary invasive epithelial ovarian cancer diagnosed between 2 months and 13.2 years after the initial blood donation. Control subjects were 263 women who were free of cancer, and matched the case on cohort, menopausal status, age, and enrollment date. Serum sFas levels were determined using a quantitative sandwich enzyme immunoassay.

Results

Serum sFas levels were similar in women subsequently diagnosed with ovarian cancer (median, 6.5 ng/mL; range, 4.4 – 10.2) and in controls (median, 6.8 ng/mL; range, 4.5 – 10.1). Statistically significant trends of increasing serum sFas with age were observed among cases (r = 0.39, p < 0.0001) and controls (r = 0.42, p < 0.0001). Compared to women in the lowest third, women in the highest third of serum sFas were not at increased risk of ovarian cancer after adjustment for potential confounders (odd ratio (OR), 0.87; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.42 – 1.82).

Conclusion

The results suggest that serum sFas may not be a suitable marker for identification of women at increased risk of ovarian cancer.