ABSTRACT
Objective: This retrospective study was designed to evaluate the importance of tissue expressions of caveolin-1 (Cav-1) known as signal regulator in differential diagnosis of endometrial lesions. Material and Methods: A total of 65 patients with normal endometrium (11 proliferative and 10 secretory epithelium, 32.3%), endometrial hyperplasia without atypia (EH) (n=11, 16.9%); atypical endometrial hyperplasia/ endometrioid intraepithelial neoplasia (AEH/EIN) (n=11; 16.9%) and endometrial carcinoma (EC) (n=22; 33.8%) were recruited for the study. Sections prepared from biopsy materials or hysterectomy specimens of the patients were immunohistochemically processed, stained, and examined for the presence of caveolin-1 expression. The positive association between immunohistochemical staining of caveolin-1 and its relationship with characteristic features of lesions and age of the patients were investigated. Results: The mean age of the patients was 49.1± 8.5 years. Stromal fibroblasts were positively stained for Cav-1 in 26 (40%) cases, and stromal expressions of Cav-1. Stromal Cav-1 expressions were detected in indicated cases with EH (36.4%), EIM (27.3%), and EC (68.2%), while only in 19% of normal endometrial biopsy specimens. It was determined that if the tumor becomes more invasive, then its stromal Cav-1 expression reaches to statistically significantly higher levels (p=0.001). Conclusion: Our findings demonstrated that stromal Cav-1 expression could be used as a marker for malignancy and invasiveness of endometrial neoplasms.