Patient Cohort
All procedures were ethically approved by the institutional Ethics Review Committee of Fudan University Shanghai Cancer center (FDCC). Appropriate written informed consent was obtained from all patients prior to sample collection.
A retrospective cohort study was conducted in the Department of Gynecology Oncology, FDCC, which included 180 patients with the 2009 FIGO stage IB1-IIA2 who underwent radical abdominal hysterectomy with or without bilateral salpingooophorectomy and pelvic ± para-aortic lymphadenectomy from 2009 to 2012. All the enrolled patients had undergone standard pelvic lymphadenectomy by experienced gynecological oncologist. All the microscopic slides were reviewed by the same professional gynecologic pathologist and were reconfirmed by another experienced gynecologic pathologist. A total of patients (90 with positive pLN and 90 with negative pLN) were assayed and their tissue specimens and clinical records were retrospectively studied.
Making Tissue Microarray (TMA)
The 180 CC tissues (in situ) with pLN positive metastasis or negative metastasis were prepared into TMA as previously described [27,28].