Immunohistochemical markers in endometrial hyperplasia: is there a panel with promise? A review.
OBJECTIVE
Despite advances in defining the biology of endometrial carcinomas, there has been little progress in determining markers that distinguish preinvasive endometrial proliferations. The goal of this literature review was to identify studies on endometrial hyperplasia (EH) that describe markers with potential to predict response to progestin therapy or potential for progression to invasive disease.


METHODS
Articles published between January 2000 and October 2006 were identified using the key words endometrial hyperplasia and progesterone receptor or estrogen receptor or biologic marker or immunohistochemistry/immunohistochemical. Articles that reported immunohistochemical studies on specimens of human EH +/-endometrioid endometrial carcinoma with a normal comparison group were included. Only those who reported hyperplasia with atypia separately from nonatypical hyperplasia and with a sample size greater than 10 specimens for the sum of complex and atypical samples were included.


RESULTS
A total of 289 abstracts were reviewed and 150 articles potentially met inclusion criteria. Of these, 123 described immunohistochemical studies on human EH specimens. Only 46 met all criteria for analysis of 61 different markers.


CONCLUSIONS
PTEN seems to have the greatest potential for diagnostic utility in EH, perhaps in combination with Bcl-2 and Bax. However, more uniform and rigorous studies are required to confirm these and additional markers' utility diagnostically in a diagnostic panel. As a major clinical priority is to determine which lesions can be treated medically and which require surgical intervention, focusing future studies on markers that distinguish response to hormone therapy or are involved in hormone regulation, will be important future considerations.
Department of Pathology, University of Washington Medical Center, 1959 NE Pacific, Box 356100, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. kallison@u.washington.edu
Kimberly H
KH
Allison
Elizabeth
E
Tenpenny
Susan D
SD
Reed
Elizabeth M
EM
Swisher
Rochelle L
RL
Garica
D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism*; D004714:Endometrial Hyperplasia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry
D015415:Biomarkers