Expression of phosphatase of regenerating liver-3 in squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix

To investigate the significance of PRL-3 expression in progression and metastasis of squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix (SCC). PRL-3 expression was detected by immunohistochemistry in 22 normal cervical epithelia, 30 moderate–severe dysplasia (CIN II-III) and 90 SCC cases. A total of 28 patients with SCC had lymph node metastasis, and PRL-3 expression of metastatic lymph node was detected. The association between PRL-3 expression and various clinical pathological variables in 90 patients with SCC was analyzed. Expression of PRL-3 in SCC was higher than that in normal and CINII-III, as well as higher in CINII-III than in normal (P < 0.05 in all instances). PRL-3 expression was significantly different between different tumor sizes, lymph-vascular space invasion status and lymph node metastasis status (P < 0.05 in all instances). PRL-3 expression in lymph node metastasis was significantly higher than that in primary SCC (P = 0.049). In lymph node metastasis, the frequency of staining in cytoplasm predominantly was higher than that in matched primary cancers (P = 0.001). PRL-3 may be involved in carcinogenesis of cervix and lymph node metastases of SCC and serves as an unfavorable prognostic factor in patients with SCC. PRL-3 localization in plasma may be related with cancer progress and metastasis.