Abstract:

Objective To explore the expression and the clinical significance of Rictor in the endometrial cancer (EC) tissue. Methods The expression levels of Rictor mRNA of 30 fresh EC tissue samples and 17 normal endometrium tissue samples were detected by the Real-Time PCR. The 249 EC paraffin tissue samples excised during operations were randomly divided into the experiment group (n=134) and confirmation group (n=115). The expression level of Rictor of EC tissue was detected by the immunohistochemistry. The relationship of expression levels of Rictor protein and clinical pathologic features of two groups was compared and the relationship of the expression of Rictor and the overall survival rate of EC patients was analyzed. Results The expression level of Rictor mRNA in EC tissues was significantly higher than that of normal endometrium (P<0.001). The rates of positive expression of Rictor for high FIGO stage (P<0.001 for the experiment group, P=0.011 for the confirmation group), high FIGO grade (P<0.001 for the experiment group, P<0.001 for the confirmation group), and vascular invasion (P=0.011 for the experiment group, P=0.043 for the confirmation group) were significantly higher than those of low FIGO stage, low FIGO grade, and non-vascular invasion. The univariate analysis showed that the overall survival rate of EC patients was relevant to the FIGO stage, pathological type, grade, vascular invasion, lymphatic metastasis, and the expression level of Rictor (P<0.05 or P<0.01). The multivariate analysis indicated that the rate of positive expression of Rictor was negatively and significantly correlated to the overall survival rate of EC patients (P<0.05). Conclusion The expression level of Rictor protein is closely related to the FIGO stage, grade, and vascular invasion. Rictor can be regarded as an independent indicator for judging the prognosis of EC.

Key words: endometrial cancer, Rictor, immunohistochemistry, prognosis