Uterine papillary serous adenocarcinoma. A 10-case study of p53 and c-erbB-2 expression and DNA content.
BACKGROUND
Uterine papillary serous adenocarcinoma (UPSA) is a highly aggressive neoplasm with a great tendency for dissemination. p53 and c-erbB-2 immunoreactivity and DNA ploidy are considered to be indicators of prognosis for endometrial carcinomas.


METHODS
Ten cases of patients with UPSA are reported. An attempt to relate pathologic findings with immunohistochemical stains for p53- and c-erbB-2-associated proteins, ploidy, and survival was made.


RESULTS
Three patients were classified as having Stage I; three, Stage II; two, Stage III; and two, Stage IV. Myometrial invasion was present with nine tumors and involved over 50% of the myometrial thickness in five. Uterine lymph vessel invasion was detected in seven cases. Peritoneal spread occurred in six patients. Overexpression of p53 was observed in six tumors, immunoreactivity for c-erbB-2 in four, and aneuploidy in seven. However, only peritoneal spread correlated significantly with survival (P < 0.005).


CONCLUSIONS
UPSA is a tumor with a high metastatic potential that exhibits immunoreactivity for p53 and c-erbB-2 and aneuploidy more often than that reported for conventional endometrioid adenocarcinomas.
Prat
J
J
Department of Pathology, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain.
Oliva
E
E
Lerma
E
E
Vaquero
M
M
Matías-Guiu
X
X
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D018283:Cystadenocarcinoma, Papillary / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000032:analysis; D066246:ErbB Receptors / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011003:Ploidies; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000032:analysis*; D014594:Uterine Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm; D066246:ErbB Receptors; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53