Induction chemotherapy in cervical carcinomas: study of heat shock proteins

FANELLI, M; LO CASTRO, G; D´ANGELO, C; VERA, V.; LOTFI, H.; VARGAS ROIG, L.; JOFRÉ, J.; CROSETTI, A.; CIOCCA, D.

Buenos Aires

Congreso; 10th World Congress of Cervical Pathology and Colposcopy; 1999

In this study, our objective was to know whether hsp27, hsp60, and hsp70 suffer modifications and are related to drug resistance in cervical carcinoma patients treated with induction chemotherapy. The study involved 25 patients with stages IIb-IIIb cervical cancer. Pre- and post-chemotherapy paired biopsies from each patient were evaluated by immunohistochemistry. Hsp60 showed an increased expression after cisplatin chemotherapy while hsp70 showed decreased nuclear expression after vinorelbine-based chemotherapy, but in both cases without reaching statistical significance. No consistent changes were observed in the other hsps studied. Hsp expression levels did not correlate with the clinical outcome of the patients (follow-up ranged from 7-64 months). These results suggest that hsp expression levels are not significantly changed by chemotherapy and are not related to drug resistance in patients with advanced cervical carcinomas.