Abstract
The aim of the present study was to examine the protein expression levels of E-, N- and P-cadherin, which are involved in the proliferation of neoplastic cells, in cancer tissue from patients with endometrial cancer. Furthermore, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of these proteins on clinicopathological parameters. Immunohistochemistry was performed to detect the protein expression levels of the aforementioned cadherins in 38 primary endometrial tumors, 20 metastatic tumors (nine metastases to the lymph nodes and 11 distant metastases) and five cases of atypical hyperplasia as the control group. It was found that the E-, N- and P-cadherin proteins in hyperplastic endometrial lesions with atypia were weakly expressed in the cytoplasm, while the expression levels of E-, N- and P-cadherin proteins, in endometrial cancer tissue, were located in the membrane and/or in the cytoplasm, and was found to be unevenly distributed. Furthermore, increased expressed level of the three cadherin proteins was observed at the tumor front, as opposed to in the main mass, of endometrial cancer tumor. It was demonstrated that membrane expression levels of the 3 cadherin proteins were lower in metastatic cancer cells compared with that in the primary tumor cells. In addition, a significantly higher cytoplasmic expression level of E-cadherin and increased membranous and cytoplasmic expression of P-cadherin, were associated with high-grade tumor budding. Furthermore, a higher percentage of P-cadherin membrane expression level was associated with poorly differentiated cancer cell types. The present results suggested that the increased membrane expression level of E-cadherin was associated with the presence of local lymph node involvement.