Introduction/Background ErbB receptors are trans-membrane glycoproteins with tyrosine kinase activity. Especially in cancer, they are implicated in cell proliferation, transformation, angiogenesis, migration and invasion. The expression of ErbB receptors, has not been studied well in endometrial cancer patients. The main aim of our study was to assess ErbB receptors profile in non-selected patients with endometrial cancer.

Methodology We evaluated retrospectively tissue specimens from 93 patients with endometrial cancer, that have been treated in the Division of Gynaecological Oncology of the University of Patras. For ErbB receptors immunostaining, we used: anti-EGFR polyclonal antibody sc-03 (Santa Cruz Biotechnology Inc., Santa Cruz, CA, USA) in a dilution 1:20, anti-ErbB-2 monoclonal antibody CB11 (BioGenex Laboratories Inc., San Ramon, CA, USA) in a dilution 1:100, anti-ErbB-3 polyclonal antibody sc-285 (Santa Cruz Biotechnology Inc., Santa Cruz, CA, USA) in a dilution 1:100 and anti-ErbB-4 polyclonal antibody sc-283 (Santa Cruz Biotechnology Inc., Santa Cruz, CA, USA) in a dilution 1:200.

Results For EGFR receptor 53 cases were positive (57%) and 40 were negative (43%), while for ErbB-2 receptor 61 cases were positive (65.6%) and 32 were negative (34.4%). For ErbB-3 receptor 66 cases were positive (71%) and 27 were negative (29%), while for ErbB-4 receptor 72 cases were positive (77.4%) and 21 were negative (22.6%).

There were some differences regarding ErbB receptors profile, especially among different histologic subtypes of endometrial cancer. However, all those differences were not statistically significant mainly because of the small number of cases with papillary serous or clear cell histology.

Conclusion ErbB receptors profile, should be evaluated independently in patients with type I and type II endometrial cancer. This is mainly based on the fact that those types of endometrial cancer have different pathophysiology and clinical behavior.

Disclosure Nothing to disclose.