Implicações clinicopatológicas da proteína epCAM no carcinoma ductal infiltrante de mama

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Data

2008-07-31

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Universidade Federal de Goiás

Resumo

Breast cancer is the second most common tumor in the world and the first among women. In the past two decades, several breast cancer studies focused on the expression and on the possible routes of cellular signaling for the epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM). This molecule was found to be overexpressed in various malignant tissues of epithelial origin, including breast cancer. The importance of EpCAM protein in tumor cells is still controversial. First, because it is believed that the cell adhesion role of EpCAM reduces the ability of metastasis. On the other hand, replacing the strong cell adhesion performed by cadherins instead of weak homophilic adhesion of EpCAM may be associated with the promotion of invasion and tumor metastasis. The aim of our study was to analyze the implications of EpCAM in breast ductal carcinoma infiltration. By using immunohistochemistry methods, we noticed the absence of EpCAM expression in 10 case (10,2%), low EpCAM levels expression in 45 cases (45,9%) and overexpression in 43 cases (43,9%). Unlike other published studies, the overexpression of the EpCAM protein did not correlate with the five-year overall survival of breast cancer patients, even those with axillary lymph node involvement. Similarly, there was no correlation between EpCAM s protein expression and classical prognostic factors, including the size of the tumor, axillary lymph node involvement, hormone receptors, c-erbB-2 overexpression and p53 immunodetection. The presence of distant metastasis , reported in 26 cases (26,5%), did not correlate significantly with the overexpression of EpCAM

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CAIXETA, Gustavo Nogueira. Clinicopathological implications of EpCAM protein in invasive ductal carcinoma of breast. 2008. 67 f. Dissertação (Mestrado em Ciências Biolóicas) - Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, 2008.