title: Immunohistochemical expression of glypican 3 in endometrial carcinoma and correlation with prognostic parameters.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Carcinogenesis is associated with several critical regulatory molecules which are involved in different signaling pathways such as the WNT signaling pathways. Among which the β-catenin dependent pathway has been associated with human endometrial cancer. Genetic and biochemical studies have demonstrated that glypicans can regulate several signaling pathways including those triggered by Wnts. Glypican 3 is one of six mammalian members of the glypican family of proteoglycans. Overexpression of glypican 3 has been reported in some types of cancers but only few data are available about its expression in endometrial carcinoma and its role in endometrial carcinogenesis. The aim of this study was to examine the immunohistochemical expression of glypican 3 in endometrioid endometrial carcinoma (EEC) and serous endometrial carcinoma (SEC), and to correlate its expression with prognostic factors of endometrial carcinoma.
  
  
  METHODS
  Immunohistochemical expression of glypican 3 was studied in fifty two EEC and nineteen SEC cases.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Glypican 3 expression showed a significant difference between EEC and SEC (P = 0.027) and it was significantly correlated with tumor grade, stage and myometrial invasion (P = 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Glypican 3 expression can be used as an adjunct in the differentiation between EEC and SEC. Glypican 3 is associated with poor prognostic parameters in both EEC and SEC, and it can be a promising molecule for targeted immunotherapy in positive cases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Lecturer of Pathology, Ain Shams University Abbasseya square, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Sarah A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Hakim
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Lecturer of Pathology, Ain Shams University Abbasseya square, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Nermine M Abd
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Raboh
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D063646:Carcinogenesis; D018269:Carcinoma, Endometrioid / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D018284:Cystadenocarcinoma, Serous / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D016889:Endometrial Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D053673:Glypicans / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008875:Middle Aged; D009215:Myometrium / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness / Q000473:pathology*; D011379:Prognosis; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D053673:Glypicans
keywords: Glypican 3; endometrial carcinoma; immunohistochemistry