Abstract
Introduction: Many studies described c-Met involvement in cancer development and progression by its multiple biological responses, which stimulate proliferation, differentiation, survival, motility, migration, angiogenesis and invasion. This study portrays the immunostaining of c-Met in endometrial neoplasms, and assesses its value as diagnostic and prognostic marker. Methods: This study retrospectively recruited 102 cases that include 72 and 30 cases of malignant and benign endometrial tissues respectively. These cases were retrieved from the archives of Pathology Department at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Tissue microarrays and immunostaining were used to show the phenotype of c-met. Results: A total number of 13 (18.05%) tumor cases were positive for c-met immunostaining. Yalow to brown cytoplasmic and/or membranous expression of c-met was detected in 2/9 (22.2%) of papillary serous endometrial carcinomas, 9/53 (17%) of endometrioid adenocarcinomas, and one case of each endometrial stromal sarcoma and malignant mixed Mullerian tumor. Twenty three (76.6%) control cases showed positive immunostaining. c-Met immunostaining was common in the cytoplasm more than membranes in malignant tumors while it was cytoplasmic and membranous in benign tissues. Significant different c-Met immunostaining distribution was observed between tumor cases and control group (P-Value = 0.0000). Furthermore, inverse odds ratio shows that tumor cases are 14.92 times less likely of having positive c-Met immunostaining (odds ratio 0.067 with 95% confidence interval 0.024-0.189). This study did not find relation between c-Met expression and disease recurrence, survival or any of the other clinicopathological parameters in endometrial tumors. Conclusion: This study in favor of c-Met expression is not a valuable factor for tumor development, recurrence, and survival in endometrial tumors. Greater c-Met staining was seen in normal and benign endometrial tissue compared to endometrial carcinomas. Loss of c-Met expression gives an indication for endometrial tumors.