When the thickness of the endometrial echo is less than 3 mm there is no need for anatomopathologic investigation. When this limit was adopted, all cases were associated with endometrial atrophy, and when the limit was 4 mm or more, active endometria were detected, requiring further histopathologic investigation by hysteroscopy and directed biopsies. Above 8 mm, malignancy may be found.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the possibility of identifying the sentinel lymph node and involvement of neoplastic cells in patients with endometrial carcinoma limited to the uterus, and also its correlation with the conditions of other pelvic and para-aortic lymph nodes. Forty patients with endometrial carcinoma, clinical staging I and II, were submitted to complete surgical staging through laparotomy, as recommended by FIGO in 1988. The sentinel node was investigated using patent blue dye in the myometrial subserosa. The sentinel node was excised and submitted to frozen section examination of specimen, stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E). Afterward, selective bilateral para-aortic and pelvic lymphadenectomy, total hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy were performed. The lymph nodes excised were examined by means of paraffin-embedded slices stained with H&E and of imunohistochemistry with antikeratin antibody AE1/AE3. The sentinel lymph node was identified in 77.5% of patients (31/40), and 16.1% (5/31) presented neoplastic involvement in the node. In 25 cases of negative sentinel node, 96% (24/25) had no neoplastic involvement, and 4% (1/25) had other lymph node affected (false negative). In nine cases with no sentinel node identified, 55.5% (5/9) had lymph node involvement. The results of this study allow us to conclude that it is possible to identify the sentinel node using the methods described, and the pathologic examination significantly represents the same conditions of other pelvic and para-aortic lymph nodes.
We hypothesized that the activation of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), and ErbB-2 signaling is required for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) lesions to progress to cervical cancer. A retrospective analysis was performed in 179 patients with Stage I squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and 233 patients with CIN (112 CIN I, 47 CIN II, and 74 CIN III). COX-2, EGFR, and ErbB-2 expression was analyzed by immunohistochemistry using the ACIS III automated imaging system. The mean expression of COX-2, EGFR, and ErbB-2 was compared between the various stages of CIN and SCC. COX-2 mean expression was predominantly cytoplasmic, increasing significantly from CIN I to CIN II, CIN III, and SCC (P<0.001). EGFR mean expression also rose significantly during tumor progression from CIN I to SCC (P=0.001). CIN I samples were negative for ErbB-2 expression. CIN II, CIN III, and SCC were considered positive for ErbB-2 expression in 2.2%, 14%, and 16.2% of cases, respectively. There was also a statistically significant correlation between increase of ErbB-2 positivity from CIN to SCC. We conclude that COX-2, EGFR, and ErbB-2 expression increase significantly during the progression of CIN to cancer.
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