Correlation between Expression of C-erbB2 Oncoprotein and the Prognostic Factors in Endometrial Cancer

Kim, Young Tae; Yoon, Hae Jeong; Kim, Dong Hyun; Lee, Hak Cheon; Kim, Sei Kwang; Kim, Jae Wook

Abstract

The c-erbB-2 oncogene encodes a 185,00 dalton transmembrane glycoportein with tyrosine kinase activity, and the aberrant overexpression of which has been implicated in the indution of a malignat phenotype. Overexpression of the c-erbB-2 has been found in many human adenocarcinomas, especially mammarian and ovarian carcinomas, and that is associated with poor prognosis. We used an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) to explore the relationship between c-erbB-2 oncoprotein and prognostic factors of endmetrial cancer and analyzed the tissued form the 24patients with endometiral cancer and 10 control cases. patinens with endometrial cancer were found to bave 20% of c-erbB-2 oncoprotein overexpression rate and signficiantly higher c-erbB-2 median oncoprotein expression than conterolC-erbB-2 oncoprotein overexpression showed no statistically significant association with known prognostic factors including stage, grade, histologic cell type, myometrial invasion and lymph node metastases, although the c-erbB-2 oncoprotein overexpression rate was increased by stage, and was higher in lymph node metastatic group than in confined to the uterus goup. High c-erbB-2 oncoprotein overexpression was correlated with absence of estrogen receptor (Rs=-0.46, p=0.047) and progestreone receptor (Rs=-0.57, p=0.045), further studies are needed to determine the significance of the c-erbB-2 everexpression in endometrial cancer.