Expression of B7-H4 in ovarian cancer and its clinical significance

We designed the study to investigate B7-H4 expression in ovarian carcinoma tissues and the correlation between B7-H4 expression and clinicopathological characteristics. We detected B7-H4 expression by immunohistochemical test in the tissues of 65 ovarian carcinoma cases and 40 controls. The correlation between each independent clinicopathological factor and B7-H4 expression was analyzed. The positive rates of B7-H4 in serous cystadenocarcinoma, borderline serous cystadenoma and serous cystadenoma were 87.8%, 23.0% and 0%, respectively. There was statistical difference among the positive rates. B7-H4 positive staining was significantly correlated with pathological grade and lymph node metastasis. B7-H4 expression scores were 5.75, 7.5 and 10.0 in well differentiated, moderately differentiated and poorly differentiated tissues, respectively. The differences among three groups were statistically significant. The scores of cases with lymph node metastasis and without lymph node metastasis were 7.75 and 5.50. There was significant difference between them. B7-H4 is involved in the carcinogenesis and development of ovarian carcinoma and is possible to be a candidate biomarker for diagnosing ovarian carcinoma.