Abstract: Objective To investigate the expression and clinical significance of mammalian sterile 20-like kinase 1 (MST1) in cervical cancer. Methods Immunohistochemical method was applied to detect the expression level of MST1 protein in specimens of cervical cancer tissues (n=139) and pericarcinomatous tissues (n=20, with ≥4 cm distance from the primary tumor’ s edge). Western blot assay and qPCR were used to detect the protein and mRNA transcription expression levels of MST1 in 20 pairs of cervical cancer tissues and pericarcinomatous tissues, respectively. The correlation between MST1 expression, clinic pathological features and the prognosis were analyzed. Results MST1 was mainly expressed in cytoplasm. The positive expression rate of MST1 was significantly lower in cervical cancer tissues (27%, 38/139) than that in pericarcinomatous tissues (80%, 16/20, χ2=21.62, P < 0.01). The expressions levels of MST1 protein and mRNA were both lower in the cervical cancer tissues (P < 0.01). In cervical cancer, the positive expression rate of MST1 in Ⅰb+Ⅱa stage was higher than that of Ⅱb+Ⅳ stage (P < 0.05), the positive expression rate of MST1 in lymph node metastasis was lower than that of without lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05). Values of age, tumor size, histological type and differentiation degree showed no significant difference to positive expression rate of MST1. Moreover, the negative expression of MST1 displayed a significantly poorer overall survival time than that of positive expression of MST1 (Log- rank χ2=28.35, P < 0.01). Conclusion MST1 shows a lower expression in cervical cancer, which may be a new target for clinical treatment and prognosis of cervical cancer.

Key words: uterine cervical neoplasms, prognosis, MST1, expression, clinical characteristic, survival analysis