Expression and potential role of ErbB receptors in type II endometrial cancer

Endometrial cancer is the most common malignancy of the female genital tract. Based on clinical and pathological features, endometrial cancer is classified into two types. The aim of our study was to describe the expression and the potential clinical role of ErbB receptors in Greek patients with type II endometrial cancer.

Between 1991 and 2008, 10 women with histologically confirmed type II endometrial cancer were referred to the Department of Gynecologic Oncology of the University of Patras Medical School. Tissue specimens from endometrial lesions were immunostained for EGFR, ErbB-2, ErbB-3 and ErbB-4.

For EGFR, 5 cases were positive (50%) and 5 cases were negative. For ErbB-2, 9 cases were positive (90%) and 1 case was negative. For ErbB-3, all cases were positive. For ErbB-4, 7 cases were positive (70%) and 3 cases were negative. Also for all ErbB receptors, 5 cases were positive (50%). During follow up, 3 patients died from their disease. All of them had papillary serous endometrial cancer and 2 of them were positive for all ErbB receptors.

Although our study was based on a small number of cases, it is obvious that we had high expression levels of ErbB receptors in patients with type II endometrial cancer. Also the majority of patients with dismal outcome were positive for all ErbB receptors. This is very important, as ErbB-targeted therapies may be clinically active as adjuvant therapy in well-defined subgroups of type II EC patients with EGFR and ErbB-2 overexpression.