Expression and significance of FOXM1 in human cervical cancer: a tissue micro-array study.

OBJECTIVE This study was designed to investigate the expression and significance of the Forkhead Box M1 (FOXM1) transcription factor in human cervical cancer. METHODS The expression of FOXM1 protein was assessed in tissue microarrays containing 102 cervical cancer tissues by the Streptavidin-Peroxidase (SP) immunohistochemistry technique. The relationship between FOXM1 protein and clinico-pathological features (pathological stages, pathological types, TNM stage) was analyzed. RESULTS FOXM1 protein was located in the cytoplasma and/or nucleus. The overall expression of FOXM1 in the cytoplasm and nucleus was not associated with T stages (P=0.217) or lymph node status (P=0.313). The nuclear expression of FOXM1 protein was not associated with T stage (P=0.508) or lymph node status (P=0.345). Elevated translocation and activity of FOXM1 were discovered with a secondary analysis that showed that the differences of the nuclear expression of FOXM1, among different pathological stages, were statistically significant (P < 0.05). The nuclear expression of FOXM1 in low differential cervical cancer tissues was significantly higher than in high differential cervical cancer tissues (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION The overexpression of FOXM1 protein in cervical cancer maybe associated with the progression of cervical cancer, and could be a potentially novel tumor marker useful for diagnosis and therapy of cervical cancer.