title: Survivin expression correlates with clinical stage, histological grade, invasive behavior and survival rate in endometrial carcinoma.
abstract: Survivin is a new member of the inhibitor of apoptosis family of anti-apoptotic proteins. It has been reported that survivin is expressed during fetal development and in cancer tissues. Because suppression of apoptosis is important for carcinogenesis and tumor growth, we investigated the expression of survivin in human endometrial carcinomas. We analyzed serial frozen sections for survivin protein expression in 31 cases of endometrial carcinoma and 20 cases of normal endometria by fluorescent immunohistochemistry. We analyzed the relationship between the percentages of survivin-stained cells and the patient's characteristics, including clinical stage, histological grade, presence of invasion to >1/2 myometrium, clinical outcome, and survival rate. Survivin was weakly detected in some normal endometria in the proliferative phase (0-5.1%) and in the secretory phase (0-15.8%). There was, however, abundant survivin immunoreactivity in the nucleus and/or cytoplasm of the endometrial carcinoma cells. Scoring on the basis of the percentage of positive cells indicated that survivin expression was significantly associated with proliferating cell nuclear antigen-labeling index, clinical stage, histological grade, the presence of invasion to >1/2 myometrium, clinical outcome, and survival rate (P<0.01, respectively). We conclude that the survivin protein is a defining diagnostic marker for endometrial carcinomas that may also yield prognostic information.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Oita Medical University, Japan. takai@oita-med.ac.jp
authors.forename: Noriyuki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Takai
authors.forename: Tami
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Miyazaki
authors.forename: Masakazu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nishida
authors.forename: Kaei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nasu
authors.forename: Isao
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Miyakawa
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D000328:Adult; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D015853:Cysteine Proteinase Inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism*; D016889:Endometrial Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D004717:Endometrium / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007044:Hysterectomy; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D051034:Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins; D019394:Ki-67 Antigen / Q000378:metabolism; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D009215:Myometrium / Q000378:metabolism; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness / Q000473:pathology; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D015996:Survival Rate; D000077022:Survivin
chemical_list: C107489:BIRC5 protein, human; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D015853:Cysteine Proteinase Inhibitors; D051034:Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins; D019394:Ki-67 Antigen; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D000077022:Survivin