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L-Carnitine: a new insight into the pathogenesis of endometrial cancer
Dagistan Tolga Arioz1, Mine Kanat-Pektas, Nadire Tuncer
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical School, Afyonkarahisar Kocatepe University, Marulcu Mah, Kadinana Cad. No: 22/4, 03200, Afyonkarahisar, Turkey.
Objectives:
The present study aims to specify the role of L-carnitine in the pathogenesis of endometrial cancer by comparing the serum total L-carnitine levels of endometrial cancer patients with those of healthy women.
Methods:
Serum total L-carnitine concentrations were measured in patients with endometrioid-type endometrial cancer (n = 20) and healthy controls (n = 20) who were matched with respect to age and body mass index (BMI).
Results:
Stage I endometrial cancer was diagnosed in 12 women (60.0%) whereas three women (15.0%) had stage II disease, three women (15.0%) had stage III disease and two women (10.0%) had stage IV disease. The healthy controls and endometrial cancer patients were statistically similar in aspect of age, gravidity, parity, BMI, waist-to-thigh ratio, waist-to-hip ratio, menopause, complete blood count parameters, and serum biochemistry. Serum total L-carnitine levels of women with endometrial cancer were significantly lower than those of healthy women (respectively, 5,519.4 ± 2,712.5 vs 7,940.8 ± 3,566.6 ng/dl, p = 0.021). Moreover, serum total L-carnitine levels decreased significantly and progressively with advancing stage (stage I vs II vs III vs IV; 6,294.0 ± 2,885.1 vs 5,800.0 ± 441.2 vs 4,016.0 ± 2,833.3 vs 2,560.0 ± 67.9 ng/dl; p = 0.021).
Conclusions:
This is the first study to hypothesize that L-carnitine deficiency participates in the pathogenesis of endometrial cancer by means of a mechanism which is unrelated with obesity and increased amount of fat in human body.
