Evaluation of epithelial-mesenchymal transition in esophageal squamous cell caricnoma and cervical cancer by e-cadherin expression analysis and its relationship with cell proliferation

• Grant number: 11/18483-2
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: December 01, 2011
• End date: November 30, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Pathological Anatomy and Clinical Pathology
• Principal Investigator: Fernando Augusto Soares
• Grantee: Fernando Augusto Soares
• Host Institution: A C Camargo Cancer Center. Fundação Antonio Prudente (FAP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Cláudia Malheiros Coutinho Camillo

Abstract

Cervical and esophageal cancers are important health problems. Together both tumors are responsible for a total of 9% of cancer deaths in the world. In our country a total of 10,600 new cases of esophageal cancer and 18,430 cervical cancer are estimated for the 2010. Originally tumors do not have the ability to invade other tissues, but in the course of disease progression tumor cells accumulate genetic changes, adopting mechanisms to break away from the primary tumor, invade surrounding tissues and still have access to lymphatics and the bloodstream. This access allows the spread and establishment of secondary tumors at sites distant from the primary tumor. These are the metastases, not primary tumors, which account for approximately 90% of all cancer deaths. For metastases to occur, cells must undergo a transition from an epithelial to a mesenchymal phenotype, loss adhesion between cells and between cells and matrix and becoming skilled to invade adjacent tissues or migrate. This transition has been widely studied and is known as epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT). Among the changes that occur in cells during the process of MET, the loss of E-cadherin expression has been described in several studies. Studies from our group showed that the analysis from the front of invasion may be an important prognostic factor in squamous cell carcinoma of the penis and, when performed to compare the loss of E-cadherin in these tumors, the loss is more evident on the front of invasion than the tumor as a whole and this greater loss at the front of invasion correlates with lymph node metastases and vimentin expression. This type of analysis has not been done in esophageal or cervical carcinomas, and it can bring a better understanding of the development and progression of these tumors. In this study, we aimed to investigate the front of tumor invasion in esophageal and cervical carcinomas, by analyzing the expression of E-cadherin and cell proliferation rate. (AU)