Correlation of INHBA Overexpression with Pathological Features, Antitumor Immune Response and Clinical Prognosis in Cervical Cancer

Background and Objectives: Cervical cancer (CC) is a malignant tumor occurring in the cervical epithelium, which is one of the most common cancer-caused deaths in females. Inhibin β A (INHBA) is the most widely expressed biomarker of the transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) family in tumor cells, and has predictive value for tumor development and prognosis. In this study, the expression of INHBA in CC tissue was examined to analyze the relationship between INHBA expression and pathological characteristics, anti-tumor immune response and clinical prognosis of CC. In addition, the factors affecting the prognosis of CC patients were explored. Materials and Methods: 84 patients with CC, who underwent surgical resection in our hospital from March 2016 to August 2017, were retrospectively picked. The tumor tissues and normal adjacent tissues of patients with CC were collected, and the expression of INHBA in CC tissues and adjacent tissues was detected using immunohistochemistry (IHC). The relationship between INHBA expression and clinicopathological characteristics of CC patients was analyzed. The relationship between INHBA expression and clinical prognosis was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier (K-M) survival curve. The levels of anti-tumor immune-response-related factors (interferon-γ (IFN-γ), interleukin-10 (IL-10), tumor necrosis factor- α (TNF-α) and IL-2) were evaluated in patients with negative and positive expressions of INHBA. The patients were followed up for 60 months and were graded as a good prognosis group and poor prognosis group according to whether the patients died or had recurrence and metastasis. Relevant factors affecting the prognosis of the patients were analyzed. Results: INHBA was localized in the cytoplasm of cancer tissues. The positive expression rate in cancer tissues was 67.86%, which was much higher than the 28.57% in normal adjacent tissues (p < 0.05). Expression of INHBA was closely correlated with Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) staging, differentiation and lymph node metastasis (p < 0.05). Compared with INHBA-negative expression group, the contents of IFN-γ, TNF-α and IL-2 were much lower, while the level of IL-10 was strongly elevated in the INHBA-positive expression group (p < 0.01). Eighty-four patients with CC were followed up for 36 months. The K-M survival curve showed that the patients with a positive expression of INHBA had a significantly shorter survival period than the patients with a negative expression of INHBA (p < 0.05). There were significant differences in FIGO staging, differentiation, lymph node metastasis and INHBA expression between patients with a good prognosis and poor prognosis (p < 0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that FIGO stage, differentiation degree, lymph node metastasis and INHBA were the factors influencing the poor prognosis of patients with CC (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The abnormally high expression of INHBA in patients with CC was related to the pathological characteristics, anti-tumor immune response and survival time, and leaded to a poor prognosis. It was speculated that INHBA exerted an important reference role in tumor invasion and clinical prognosis evaluation, which could act as a new target for anti-tumor treatment of CC.