FABP4, GINS2 and CBX7 Expression in Cancer Cervix Tissues: Clinical, Pathological and Prognostic Implications

Cervical cancer spreads to the pelvic lymph nodes, leading to a high incidence of cancer recurrence and unfavorable survival rates. Therefore, there is an urgent need to detect new predictive biomarkers for the early assessment of pelvic lymph node status in patients with cervical cancer. Fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4) is an intracellular lipid chaperone that can carry fatty acids to many organelles. Subunit 2 of the GINS complex (GINS2), which belongs to the GINS complex family, encodes a protein that initiates DNA replication and controls the cell cycle and normal cell division. Chromobox homolog 7 (CBX7) was found to promote cancer occurrence and spread through the promotion of EMT.

The current study aimed to assess the expression of FABP4, GINS2, and CBX7 in cancer cervix tissue to detect their prognostic and predictive roles in the development of lymph node metastases in cancer cervix patients

we collected tissues from patients with cancer cervix and evaluated the expression of FABP4, GINS2, and CBX7 using immunohistochemistry. We evaluated the association between their expression and clinicopathological and prognostic parameters.

high expression of FABP4 and GINS2, in addition to low expression of CBX7, was positively associated with the old age group, large tumor size, high grade and lymphovascular involvement, para-uterine organ infiltration, advanced FIGO stage, chemotherapeutic resistance, and tumor recurrence.

We demonstrated the oncogenic roles of FABP4 and GISN2 in addition to the on-co-suppressive roles of CBX7 in cervical cancer and their association with poor clinicopathological criteria and poor survival. Our results indicated that FABP4, GISN2, and CBX7 could be considered predictive biomarkers of the occurrence of lymph node metastases in the cancer cervix preoperatively, which could be beneficial in the accurate preoperative design therapy.