Background:

Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecologic cancer. Although most patients respond adequately to the first-line therapy, up to 85% experience a recurrence of disease, which carries a poor prognosis. Mitotic arrest deficiency 1 is a protein that helps in the assembly of the mitotic spindle assembly checkpoint by preventing anaphase until all chromatids are properly aligned. A single-nucleotide polymorphism in the MAD1L1 gene is prevalent in patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer and alters the way in which it responds to chemotherapy.

Objective:

The objective of the study was to study the relationship between the rs1801368 polymorphism of MAD1L1 and prognosis of ovarian adenocarcinoma.

Methods:

A total of 118 patients in whom the MAD1L1 gene was sequenced were analyzed using descriptive and comparative statistics.

Results:

Patients carrying the wild-type genotype had a higher distribution of early-stage disease. Having a MAD1L1 polymorphic allele increased the risk of being non-sensitive to chemotherapy. The median disease-free survival for patients with the wild-type MAD1L1 was 46.93 months, compared to 10.4 months for patients with at least one polymorphic allele.

Conclusions:

The rs1801368 polymorphism of MAD1L1 gene worsens prognosis in patients with ovarian adenocarcinoma. Traditional therapy for ovarian cancer might not be optimal in patients carrying this polymorphism.