gms | German Medical Science

27th German Cancer Congress Berlin 2006

German Cancer Society (Frankfurt/M.)

22. - 26.03.2006, Berlin

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Prognostic significance of inhibin/activin subunits (alpha, betaA and betaB) in human endometrial carcinoma: an immunohistochemical analysis of 294 cases

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  • corresponding author presenting/speaker Ioannis Mylonas - 1st Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
  • Silvia Worbs - 1st Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
  • Naim Shabani - 1st Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany
  • Dian Darius - 1st Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany
  • Doris Mayr - Institute of Pathology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
  • Christina Kuhn - 1st Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
  • Sandra Schulze - 1st Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
  • Susanna Kunze - 1st Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
  • Harald Sommer - 1st Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
  • Udo Jeschke - 1st Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
  • Klaus Friese - 1st Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany

27. Deutscher Krebskongress. Berlin, 22.-26.03.2006. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2006. DocPO360

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/dkk2006/06dkk470.shtml

Published: March 20, 2006

© 2006 Mylonas et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

Text

And one of two possible beta-subunits (INH-bA or -bB), with substantial roles in human reproduction and in endocrine-responsive tumours. Aims of this study were to examine the expression of INH-a, -bA and -bB and evaluated their clinical significance in endometrial carcinomas.

Materials and Methods: 294 endometrial carcinoma cases were examined using immunohistochemistry with archival specimens. The findings were correlated with various clinicopathologic variables, including WHO grading, FIGO stage, histology, lymphnode involment, lymphangiosis, estrogen and progesterone receptor status.

Results: Immunoreactivity of INH-a, -bA and -bB could be demonstrated in endometrial carcinomas. Patients whose tumors were negative for INH-a were at much higher risk to develop recurrent and/or mortal disease as demonstrated by Kaplan-Meier analysis (P < 0.01). In multivariate analysis, absence of INH-a turned out to be a statistically independent risk factor in progression-free survival, cause-specific survival and overall survival (P < 0.05), together with WHO grading and FIGO stage. The expression of the b-subunits did not demonstrate any significant differences regarding survival.

Conclusions: This large study of almost 300 endometrial cancer cases demonstrate that loss or absence of INH-a determined by immunohistochemistry may be an important tool to identify endometrial carcinoma cases at high risk of recurrence and/or death, who are otherwise not detected by current clinical and pathologic evaluation. This might suggest a tumor supressor function of INH-a in human endometrium as previously suggested for ovarian cancer in the mouse model. In addition, results of INH-a immunohistochemistry could contribute to planning postoperative follow-up and adjuvant therapy.