Gynaecology Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Gynaecology, including details on pap smears, laparoscopy, ultrasound, hysteroscopy.

The significance of prohibitin and c-Met/hepatocyte growth factor receptor in the progression of cervical adenocarcinoma.

Tsai HW, Chow NH, Lin CP, Chan SH, Chou CY, Ho CL

Department of Pathology, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, ROC.

To examine the importance of prohibitin 1 and c-Met/hepatocyte growth factor receptor (HGFR) expression in human cervical adenocarcinomas, 85 patients (69 with invasive adenocarcinoma [ACA] and 16 with adenocarcinoma in situ [AIS]) were studied using immunohistochemistry. High prohibitin 1 expression was found in 51 (73.9%) of the 69 ACAs and 11 (68.7%) of the 16 AIS lesions. Prohibitin 1 overexpression was significantly higher in ACA and AIS than in adjacent nonneoplastic glandular epithelium (P < .001 for both comparisons). Prohibitin 1 expression was also positively related to tumor size (P = .019) or parametrial involvement (P = .027) in ACA. c-Met was expressed in 21 ACAs (30.4%) and was positively correlated with the Fédération Internationale de Gynécologie et d'Obstétrique (International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics) stage classification (P = .007) or nodal metastasis (P = .047). Nodal metastasis (P = .028) and c-Met expression (P = .022) were independent predictors for the overall survival of patients in multivariate analysis using the Cox regression method. Prohibitin 1 activation seems to be an early event, whereas c-Met overexpression may be important for the progression of cervical adenocarcinomas. Evaluation of c-Met expression status may identify a subset of patients with cervical adenocarcinoma who require more intensive treatment.

Published 23 January 2006 in Hum Pathol, 37(2): 198-204.
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