Clinical significance of Twist, E-cadherin, and N-cadherin protein expression in endometrioid adenocarcinoma.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the study was to investigate the expression of Twist, E-cadherin, and N-cadherin both in normal endometrium and in endometrioid adenocarcinoma tissues (NET and EAT), and further discuss the relationship between the proteins expression and the clinical parameters.

METHODS

Seventy-six EAT and 50 NET were collected from endometrioid adenocarcinoma patients and patients who received hysterectomy. We used immunohistochemistry (two steps methods) to detect the expression of Twist, E-cadherin, and N-cadherin proteins in EAT and NET. The Twist, E-cadherin, and N-cadherin protein positive expression rate in EAT and NET were compared by Chi-square test. Moreover, the correlation between patients' clincial characteristics and Twist, E-cadherin, and N-cadherin protein expression was evaluated.

RESULTS

The positive expression of Twist and N-cadherin proteins in EAT was significantly higher than those in NET (u = 14.8, 9.04, P < 0.05), the positive expression of E-cadherin protein in ENT was significantly lower than those in NET (u = 4.14, P < 0.05). The Twist, E-cadherin, and N-cadherin expressions were related with endometrioid adenocarcinoma under different International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) clinical stages (P < 0.05), depths of tumor invasion (P < 0.05), and tumor differentiation degrees (P < 0.05). However, these proteins exerted no influence on vessel and lymph metastases (P > 0.05). The Spearman rank correlation analysis showed that the expression of the Twist protein and that of the E-cadherin (r = -0.584, P < 0.05), N-cadherin protein (r = 0.460, P < 0.05) in endometrioid adenocarcinoma was significant correlated with statistical difference.

CONCLUSION

Twist, E-cadherin, and N-cadherin protein were different expressed in EAT and NET which indicating their potential function for endometrioid adenocarcinoma development. Twist may participate in the occurrence of epithelial-mesenchymal transition, affect the expression of E-cadherin and N-cadherin and may be related to metastasis and progression of endometrioid adenocarcinoma.