BACKGROUND: Our recent studies suggested that the chromodomain helicase DNA 
binding protein 1-like (CHD1L) gene plays an oncogenic role in human 
hepatocellular carcinoma. However, the status of CHD1L protein expression in 
ovarian cancer and its clinical/prognostic significance are obscure.
METHODS: In this study, immunohistochemistry (IHC) for CHD1L was performed on a 
tissue microarray (TMA) containing 102 primary ovarian carcinomas and 44 
metastatic lesions (omental metastasis). Receiver-operator curve (ROC) analysis 
was used to evaluate patients' survival status.
RESULTS: There is an augmented tendency of CHD1L expression in ovarian carcinoma 
metastasis than in primary lesions (P<0.05). A significant association was found 
between positive expression of CHD1L and tumors histological type (P <0.05). By 
univariate survival analysis of the ovarian carcinoma cohorts, positive 
expression of CHD1L was significantly correlated with shortened patient survival 
(mean 66.7 months versus 97.4 months, P<0.05). Moreover, CHD1L expression was 
evaluated to be a significant and independent prognostic factor in multivariate 
analysis (P<0.05).
CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide evidence that positive expression of CHD1L 
protein is significantly correlated with the metastasis proceeding of ovarian 
carcinoma, and CHD1L protein expression, as examined by IHC, may act as a novel 
prognostic biomarker for patients with ovarian carcinoma.