Clusterin has anti-apoptotic, regeneration and migration stimulating effects on
tumor cells. This study investigates the relation between
clusterin expression and the clinicopathological parameters in
endometrial carcinomas. Seventy one cases of previously diagnosed
endometrial carcinoma (including 59
endometrioid adenocarcinoma, 9 serous
adenocarcinoma, 1
clear cell adenocarcinoma, and 2 malignant mixed Mullerian
tumor) and 30 tissue samples of non-cancerous endometrium (including 16 proliferative endometrium, 10 secretory endometrium and 4 endometrial
polyps) were employed for
clusterin detection using tissue microarrays and immunostaining. A total number of 23 (32.4%) cases were positive for
clusterin immunostaining. Brown granular cytoplasmic expression of
clusterin was detected in 33.9% of
endometrioid adenocarcinomas, 22.2% papillary serous
endometrial carcinomas. Three (10%) control cases showed granular cytoplasmic expression. Positive
clusterin immunostaining was found more frequent in well differentiated and stage I
endometrial carcinomas, showing significant statistical association (p-value=0.036 and p-value=0.002 respectively). Significant difference in
clusterin expression was observed between
tumor cases and control group (P-Value=0.019), i.e.,
endometrial carcinoma cases are more than four times likely to show positive
clusterin immunostaining (odds ratio 4.313 with 95% confidence interval 1.184-15.701). This study did not find relation between
clusterin expression and disease recurrence, survival or any of the other clinicopathological parameters in endometrial
tumors. The results of our study confirms the diagnostic values of
clusterin in supporting the diagnosis of
endometrioid carcinoma. When
clusterin is expressed in endometrial
tumors, it is associated with lower stage. The correlation of
clusterin with
tumor stage suggests involvement of this molecule in endometrial
tumor progression.