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Aims: This study examined the correlation between high nuclear expression of hepatoma-derived growth factor (HDGF) and clinicopathologic data in endometrial carcinoma (EC), including patient survival., Methods: One hundred and twenty-two endometrial carcinoma (EC) patients from 2002 to 2008 were reviewed in the study. HDGF expression in tumor tissues was examined using immunohistochemistry (IHC), and its association with clinicopathological parameters was evaluated. Tumors with 80% or more nuclei staining were regarded as high expression and tumors with less than 80% nuclei staining considered as low expression., Results and Conclusions: Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that HDGF was expressed in both the nucleus and cytoplasm. High nuclear expression of HDGF was positively correlated with FIGO stage (P = 0.032), but not associated with other clinical features, such as histological grading or lymph node status. Patients with high expression of HDGF had poorer overall survival rates than those with low expression of HDGF (P = 0.001). However, multivariate analyses showed that high nuclear expression of HDGF protein was not an independent predictor of prognosis for EC patients (P = 0.111). Our results suggest that high nuclear expression of HDGF is a potential unfavorable factor for the progression and prognosis of EC.

Aims and Background: The aim of the present study was to analyze the expression of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP9) in endometrial cancer and its correlation with clinicopathologic features in Chinese patients, including the survival of patients with endometrial cancer., Methods: Using immunohistochemistry analysis, we analyzed MMP9 protein expression in clinicopathologically characterized 128 endometrial cancer (EC) cases with age ranging from 30 to 85 years (median=51.6 years) and 30 endometrial atypical hyperplasia (EAH) and 30 normal endometrium (NE). Cases with greater than or equal to 6 and less than 6 with the score value of cytoplasmic MMP9 immunostaining were regarded as high expression and low expression, respectively. The relationship between the expression levels of MMP9 and clinical features was analyzed in EC cases., Results: Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that the protein expression of MMP9 detected in EC tissues was higher than that in the EAH tissues and NE tissues (P=0.006). In addition, high levels of MMP9 protein were positively correlated with the status of lymph node metastasis (P=0.044) and the histopathological grade (P<0.05) of EC patients. Patients with higher MMP9 expression did not correlate with EC patients' clinical outcome in China. Multivariate analysis suggested that status of lymph node metastasis and depth of myometrial invasion, but not MMP9 expression level, were significantly correlated with patients' survival., Conclusion: MMP9 is highly expressed in ECs and correlates with the progression of ECs, but not be helpful in predicting the prognosis of EC patients.