Immunohistochemical Detection of Beta- Catenin in Ovarian Tumors Among Sudanese Women

Abstract

This is hospital based analytical retrospective case control study was conducted at Soba university hospital, Omdurman military hospital, Omdurman maternity hospital (Khartoum state), and Sudan university of science and technology-college of medical laboratory science, during the period from September 2016to February2017. The study was aimed to detect beta-catenin expression in ovarian tumors, using immunohistochemistry. Forty paraffin block samples were collected from patients previously diagnosed as ovarian tumors, 30(75%) were malignant and 10 (25%) were benign. 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. The age of patients ranged between 16 and 88 with mean age of 44 years. Most patients were less than 50 years representing 31 (77.5%) and the remaining 9 (22.5%) were older than 50 years. Beta-catenin expression was revealed positive result in 22 (55%) samples in malignant samples while 8 (20%) samples showed negative expression, while in benign ovarian tumors positive expression was found in 2 (5%) samples and 8 (20%) samples showed negative expression, this result showed significant association of beta-catenin expression and malignant ovarian tumors (P. value = 0.003). Regarding the histopathological subtypes of malignant tumor, β-catenin expression was found positive in 18 (60%) samples of epithelial ovarian cancer, 1 (3.3%) sample of germ cell tumor, 2 (6.7%) samples of granulosa cell tumor and 1 (3.3%) sample of malignant mixed mullerian tumor, this result showed insignificant association between beta-catenin expression and histological subtype of malignant tumor (P. value = 0.796). Regarding β-catenin expression and tumor grade, β-catenin were positive in 5 (16.7%) samples grade I, 2 (6.7%) samples grade II, 15 (50%) samples grade III, while negative expression was found in 3 (10%) samples grade I, 2 (6.7%) samples grade II and 3 (10%) samples grade III. This result showed insignificant association between beta-catenin expression and tumor grade (P. value = 0.284). The study concluded that positive expression of β-catenin was associated with malignant tumors of ovarian and no association between β-catenin expression and histological subtype of malignant tumor as well astumor grade.