Carbonic anhydrase XII as biomarker and therapeutic target in ovarian carcinomas.

Targeting the tumor-associated carbonic anhydrase XII (CA XII) is considered a promising strategy to improve cancer treatment. As such progress is highly demanded for ovarian carcinomas, the present study aimed to provide deeper information about their CA XII expression profile. A large collection of tissue specimens was stained immunohistochemically with a specific anti-CA XII antibody to evaluate the expression in neoplastic and non-neoplastic epithelial ovarian cells. In addition, flow cytometry was used to measure CA XII expression on tumor cells from malignant ascites fluid. Binding of the antibody revealed a significant CA XII expression in most ovarian carcinoma tissue samples and ascites-derived ovarian carcinoma cells. Moreover, CA XII was expressed at higher levels in ovarian carcinomas as compared to borderline ovarian tumors and non-neoplastic ovarian epithelia. Within the carcinoma tissues, high expression of CA XII was associated with higher tumor grading and a trend towards shorter overall survival. Our results indicate that CA XII plays a crucial role for the malignancy of ovarian carcinoma cells and emphasize the potential of CA XII as a diagnostic marker and therapeutic target in the management of ovarian carcinomas.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

I have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: Reinhard Zeidler is an inventor to a patent on the CA XII antibody (US9359446B2, ’Antibody to a carbonic anhydrase’). The antibody 6A10 was a kind gift of the Core Facility ’Monoclonal Antibodies’ at the Helmholtz-Center Munich. No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed by the other authors.