title: Expression of the serine protease hepsin and clinical outcome of human endometrial cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Hepsin is a type II transmembrane serine protease originally identified in the human liver as a cDNA clone. Hepsin was found to be significantly overexpressed in cancer samples compared to matched various tissues (e.g. prostate, renal, ovarian carcinoma). The purpose of the present study was to examine hepsin expression and to evaluate its clinicopathological significance in endometrial cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  Hepsin expression was examined by immunohistochemisty in 34 cases with normal endometrium as a control, 11 cases with endometrial hyperplasia, and 128 cases with endometrioid adenocarcinoma.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Hepsin expression was found to be significantly higher in endometrial cancer compared to normal endometrium and endometrial hyperplasia. High levels of hepsin expression were associated with advanced stage (p<0.001), high grade (p=0.002), depth of myometrial invasion (p<0.001), cervical involvement (p=0.007), lymph node metastasis (p=0.001), lymph vascular space (LVS) involvement (p=0.006), ovarian metastasis (p=0.002), and peritoneal cytology (p=0.03) of endometrial cancer.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings indicate that hepsin protein expression could be an important indication for high risk of endometrial cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2-5-1 Shikata-cho, Okayama 700-8558, Japan.
authors.forename: Tamaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsuo
authors.forename: Keiichiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: Norio
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Takamoto
authors.forename: Junichi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kodama
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hongo
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Abrzua
authors.forename: Yasutomo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nasu
authors.forename: Hiromi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kumon
authors.forename: Yuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hiramatsu
mesh_terms: D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D016889:Endometrial Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases / Q000096:biosynthesis*
chemical_list: D012697:Serine Endopeptidases; C055645:hepsin