title: Decreased E-cadherin expression in endometrial carcinoma is associated with tumor dedifferentiation and deep myometrial invasion.
abstract: Decreased E-cadherin expression in tumor cells has been suggested to promote tumor invasiveness. We examined E-cadherin expression in 30 cases of endometrial carcinoma by immunohistochemistry using a monoclonal antibody to E-cadherin and investigated its correlation with other histopathologic features of the tumor. We observed that: (1) E-cadherin expression decreased with loss of differentiation (P < 0.05); (2) E-cadherin expression was inversely correlated with depth of myometrial invasion (P < 0.05); (3) decreased E-cadherin expression was correlated with paraaortic node metastasis (P < 0.01); and (4) multivariate analysis comparing the depth of myometrial invasion to the pattern of E-cadherin expression, histologic grade, nuclear grade, and lymph-vascular space invasion showed that the depth of myometrial invasion was most strongly correlated with decreased E-cadherin expression (P < 0.005). These findings seem to be consistent with the concept that the dissociation of cancer cells due to decreased expression of E-cadherin facilitates invasion of tumor cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hokkaido University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sakuragi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nishiya
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ikeda
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ohkouch
authors.forename: E E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Furth
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hareyama
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Satoh
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fujimoto
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015820:Cadherins / Q000032:analysis*; D016889:Endometrial Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D009215:Myometrium / Q000473:pathology*; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D012044:Regression Analysis
chemical_list: D015820:Cadherins