Purpose To investigate the expression of tumor buds and its relationship with clinicopathological characteristics in endome-trial carcinoma. Methods 47 cases of endometrial carcinoma were observed and analyzed by means of clinicopathologic data and im-munohistochemical staining. The connections between tumor buds and clinicopathologic parameters were studied by statistics. Results Of the 47 endometrial carcinoma cases, tumor buds were seen in 18 cases. Tumor buds were correlated with histological grade, lymph node metastases, vascular invasion, Ki-67 index and survival. There were no associations between tumor buds with age, tumor size, pTNM stage or myometrial invasion depth. Immunohistochemistry demonstrated that the level of N-cadherin, vimentin in bud cells was higher than normal carcinoma cells while the level of CK(AE1/AE3),β-catenin and E-cadherin got the opposite results. Conclu-sion Tumor buds may play an important role in the progression of endometrial carcinoma. The immunohistochemical features of bud cells indicated that tumor buds may be a key step in epithelial-mesenchymal transition.%目的：探讨子宫内膜癌组织中肿瘤芽的表达及其与临床病理特征、预后的关系。方法回顾性分析47例子宫内膜癌的病理切片,计算每例切片中肿瘤芽数量,对肿瘤芽细胞行免疫组化染色。运用统计学分析肿瘤芽表达与患者临床病理因素、预后的关系。结果47例子宫内膜癌中,18例存在肿瘤芽,阳性率为38.3%。肿瘤芽与子宫内膜癌的组织学分级、淋巴结转移、血管侵犯、淋巴管侵犯、Ki-67增殖指数及预后相关,而与患者年龄、肿瘤直径、pTNM分期及肌层侵犯深度无关。肿瘤芽细胞中CK(AE1/AE3)、β-catenin及E-cadherin表达明显减少,而N-cadherin、vimentin表达升高。结论肿瘤芽表达与子宫内膜癌的进展和恶性度相关,可作为判断子宫内膜癌患者预后的指标。肿瘤芽的免疫表型提示其与上皮-间质转化( epithelial-mesenchymal transition, EMT)密切相关,肿瘤芽可能是EMT发生的重要过程之一。
展开▼
