[Relationships between the molecular biomarkers and the clinicopathologic features and prognosis in endometrial...

To explore the relationships between the expressions of estrogen receptor (ER), progestin receptor (PR), phosphatase and tension homology deleted on chromosome ten (PTEN), p53, Ki-67 and the clinicopathologic features and prognosis in endometrial carcinoma.

The data of clinical characteristics, pathological types, histological grades, follow-ups and the expressions of molecular markers detected by immunohistochemistry, and collected from 200 patients with primary endometrial carcinoma, were analyzed.

(1) In the cases of endometrial carcinoma, the expression rates of ER, PR, PTEN, p53 were 86.5%, 85.5%, 82.1%, and 49.2%, respectively. The expression level of Ki-67 in the tumor tissues was 46.9% ± 24.7%. (2) A negative correlation was observed between the gravidity and the expression of PR (r=-0.191, P=0.007). On the other hand, age and parturition time were in positive correlation with the expression of p53 (r=0.184, P=0.041; r=0.255, P=0.004). (3) The expression rates of ER, PR and p53 in the endometrioid carcinoma exhibited significant differences comparing with other types (P<0.01). (4) A negative correlation was found between the expression of ER and the FIGO staging (r=-0.176, P=0.013). The positive rate of ER in the cases with Stage I was higher than that in cases with Stage II and above (P=0.015). (5) A negative correlation was found between the histological grade and the expressions of ER and PR (r=-0.217, P=0.002; r= -0.317, P=0.000), however, a positive correlation was detected between the grade with the expressions of p53 and Ki-67 (r=0.327, P=0.000; r=0.465, P=0.000). Compared with the grade 3 tumors, the other grades exhibited significant different expression levels of ER, PR, p53, and Ki-67 (P<0.01). (6) A negative correlation was observed between the depth of myometrial invasion and the positive rate of ER (r=-0.142, P=0.047). There were statistically significant different expression rates of ER and PR between the cases whether the cancer invaded the deep myometrium or not (P<0.05). (7) Multivariate survival analysis showed that patients with PR (+) had longer overall survival than those with PR (-) (P=0.011).

The immunohistochemical study of endometrium samples obtained from dilatation and curettage of uterine will be beneficial to the understanding of the clinicopathologic features of the endometrial carcinoma before the operation. The value of estimating the prognosis using the expressions of ER, PTEN, p53 and Ki-67 was negative, except for the expression of PR.