Expression of tumor suppressor gene PTEN in endometrial carcinoma

    MA Jiaª²Jia, CHEN Biª²Liang, MA Xiangª²Dong, WANG Deª²Tang, GUO Huiª²Ling

    Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi¡¯an 710033, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To investigate the effects of tumor suppressor gene PTEN in the carcinogenesis and development of the endometrial carcinoma and to identify the correlations between the expression of PTEN and the clinicopathologic factors of endometrial carcinoma. METHODS: Seventyª²seven endometrial carcinoma samples were immunohitochemically analyzed, 72 of which were adenoendometrial carcinoma and 25 normal endometrium samples for PTEN expression. Results were compared with the clinicopathologic factors, such as type, stage, grade, myometrial invasion, lymph invasion and age. RESULTS: Loss of PTEN protein expression in endometrial carcinoma (60%) was much more frequent than those of normal endometrium tissues (0%, P=0.0000) and the expression level of PTEN varied between the two different histological types (64% vs 0%, P=0.0048) and the pathological grade. Loss of PTEN protein expression increased with the malignancy grade of endometrial carcinoma (P=0.0034) but was not associated with clinical stages, myometrial invasion, lymph invasion and ages. CONCLUSION: Tumor suppressor gene PTEN plays an important role in the carcimogenesis and development of the endometrial carcinoma. The loss of PTEN expression is closely related to the carcinogenesis and development of the endometrial carcinoma, especially the adenoendometrial tumorigenesis. ......