Abstract
Background: Bcl-2 expression appears to be under hormonal control in normal endometrium and to correlate with hormone receptor status in endometrial cancer. The aim of this study was to assess bcl-2 expression in endometrial cancer. Materials and Methods: Hysterectomy specimens from 125 patients with endometrial cancer were stained for bcl-2. Estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) levels were quantified with a dextran-coated charcoal assay. Results: Bcl-2 expression correlated significantly with endometrioid histology and high levels of ER and PR (p<0.05). For the entire population, bcl-2 expression was not significantly associated with the presence of extrauterine disease. However, when only patients with grade 1 or 2 endometrioid histology were considered, tumors with bcl-2 expression were significantly (p<0.05) more likely to present with extrauterine disease than those not expressing bcl-2. Conclusion: Bcl-2-mediated inhibition of apoptosis may be important in the acquisition of molecular alterations and development of metastases in a subset of hormone-dependent endometrial cancers.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 823-827 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Anticancer research |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue number | 2 A |
| State | Published - Mar 2006 |
Keywords
- Bcl-2
- Carcinogenesis
- Endometrioid corpus cancer
- Estrogen receptors
- Histological subtype
- Progesterone receptors
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Oncology
- Cancer Research