Cyclins A, B, E and p27 in Endometrial Endometrioid Adenocarcinoma

Background/aim: We have previously shown that cyclin A, B and E hold prognostic significance in endometrial endometrioid adenocarcinoma. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p27 on cancer-specific survival and other clinicopathological variables, as well as further analyze the relationship between p27 and cyclins A, B and E and their combined relation to prognosis in the disease.

Patients and methods: The study comprised of 211 patients surgically treated for endometrial endometrioid adenocarcinoma at the Oulu University Hospital between 1992 and 2000. Tissue samples were immunohistochemically stained for cyclins A, B and E, as well as p27. Clinicopathological data were retrospectively retrieved from the patients' records.

Results: In this study, universally low cyclin expression was found to be an independent, favorable prognostic factor in endometrial endometrioid adenocarcinoma. A strong correlation was found between cyclin A and cyclin B expression and weaker correlations between other cyclin and p27 pairs. Nuclear p27 expression correlated with stage and produced near-significant results in univariate survival analysis.

Conclusion: Combining the expression level of different cyclins may be useful in determining the prognosis in endometrial cancer. Unfortunately, it remains unclear whether high p27 expression is a poor or a favorable prognostic factor. Further large-scale studies are required to assess the effects of cyclins and p27 in endometrial cancer.