Expression of E-cadherin and β-catenin in primary and peritoneal metastatic ovarian carcinoma
Protein expression levels of E-cadherin and β-catenin were examined in 39 primary and 10 metastatic ovarian carcinoma to elucidate the role of these molecules in the extension of ovarian carcinoma by immunohistochemistry. Twenty-two of 39 (56%) ovarian carcinomas were preserved
type and 17 of 39 (44%) were reduced type of E-cadherin. In contrast, 36 of 39 (92%) ovarian carcinomas were preserved type and 3 of 39 (8%) were reduced type of β-catenin. E-cadherin expression in well-differentiated carcinoma was higher than that in moderately/poorly-differentiated
carcinoma (p<0.05). Interestingly, 6 of 10 (60%) peritoneal metastatic lesions resulted in the reduced expression of E-cadherin compared with primary lesions. In contrast, only 2 of 10 (20%) metastatic lesions showed reduced expression of β-catenin compared with primary lesions. Mutation
of exon 3 of β-catenin gene was rare (3%, 1/39) in carcinoma. These results suggested that the cell adhesion molecule E-cadherin might play an important role in the formation of peritoneal metastasis. In contrast, β-catenin is not a good indicator of metastasis in human ovarian carcinoma.
Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: Department of Pathology, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8575, Japan
Publication date: 01 January 2001
- Oncology Reports is a monthly, peer-reviewed journal devoted to the publication of high quality original studies and reviews concerning a broad and comprehensive view of fundamental and applied research in oncology, focusing on carcinogenesis, metastasis and epidemiology.
The journal is published in both print and electronic format. - Editorial Board
- Information for Authors
- Submit a Paper
- Subscribe to this Title
- Information for Advertisers
- Terms & Conditions
- Ingenta Connect is not responsible for the content or availability of external websites
- Access Key
- Free content
- Partial Free content
- New content
- Open access content
- Partial Open access content
- Subscribed content
- Partial Subscribed content
- Free trial content