Overexpression of DOCK6 correlates with poor survival of patients with epithelial ovarian cancer

Objective: To investigate the role of the dedicator of cytokinesis 6 gene (DOCK6) in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Methods: The expression of DOCK6 was measured through immunohistochemistry in samples from sixty-five EOC patients. The correlations between DOCK6 immunoreactivity and different clinicopathological characteristics were determined by Pearson's chi 2 test or Fisher's exact test. Different clinicopathological characteristics in relation to patient survival were evaluated by the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and multivariate Cox regressions. Results: High DOCK6 expression in EOC tissues was positively associated with an advanced (III+IV) Federation International of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage (P=0.01) and high tumor grade (P=0.01). Using multivariate CI=1.39-106.28) and any residual tumor (P=0.02, HR=3.14, 95% CI=1.19-8.27) were shown to be independent prognostic factors. Conclusion: The overexpression of DOCK6 in EOC tissues was associated with advanced FIGO stage, suggesting that DOCK6 might be involved in the progression of EOC. More importantly, these data validate DOCK6 expression in addition to two pathological parameters (FIGO stage and residual tumor) as independent prognostic markers for EOC patients.