Conclusion
The present work demonstrates that PSMA expression is negligible and a fortiori non-sufficient to ensure its usefulness as a prognosticator or a target for a theranostic strategy in ovarian cancers.
Methods
The OvaRessources Biological Resources Center database was screened from January 2004 to December 2017 to seek patients referred for the initial management of a serous epithelial ovarian cancer and for whom peritoneal histological samples were available in the tumour bank. Immunodetection of PSMA was performed to assess its cellular and neovascular expression. Slides were controlled by a certified pathologist, recorded as tiled tiff images and processed to compute the proportion of DAB stained surface.
Purpose
Until now,
Results
Of the 51 patients identified by the database screening, 32 patients were included resulting in 57 samples (32 pre-chemotherapy and 25 post-chemotherapy histological samples). Nine patients were chemo-sensitive, 10 were partially chemo-sensitive and 13 were chemo-resistant/refractory. In the entire dataset, the expression of PSMA was quasi-inexistent: %DABPSMA = 0.04 (± 0.12) %. There was no significant difference in the %DABPSMA of sensitive, partially sensitive and resistant/refractory patients. There was also no significant difference in %DABPSMA in tumours before and after chemotherapy in the 25 patients for whom both samples were available.