Detection of β-Catenin Expression in Endometrial Tumors among Sudanese patients using Immunohistochemistry

Abstract

This is a hospital based analytical retrospective case control study was conducted at Ribat University Hospital, Soba University Hospital, Omdurman Military Hospital (Khartoum state) and Sudan university of science and technology- college of medical laboratory science, during the period from June to October 2016. The study was aimed to detect beta-catenin expression in endometrial tumors, using immunohistochemistry. Forty paraffin block samples were collected from patients previously diagnosed as endometrial tumors, 20 (50%) of them were malignant and 20 (50%) were benign. The histopathological diagnosis of study population includes 8 (40%) endometrioid adenocarcinoma, 6 (30%) papillary carcinoma, 5 (25%) squamous cell carcinoma, 1 (5%) malignant mixed mullerian tumor, 4 (20%) atypical hyperplasia, 16 (80%) non atypical hyperplasia. The age of patients ranged between 25 to 85 years with the mean age of 56.4 ± 14.9 years. The present study revealed that most patients 22 (55%) were above 60 years and the remaining 18 (45%) were below 60 years. The paraffin blocks were cut by rotary microtome, then stained by immunohistochemical method (new indirect technique). The data obtained was analysed using SPSS program version 20. Mean, standard deviation, frequencies and Chi square test were calculated. Beta-catenin expression was found positive in 13 (65%) of malignant samples and negative in the remaining 7 (35%). While all benign samples were positive with a significant association between β-catenin expression and endometrial tumors (P. value = 0.004). The study concluded that there is a significant relationship between β-catenin expression and endometrial tumors.