Objective To investigate the expression and clinical significance of tumor-associated carbohydrate anti-gen sTn in endometrium from patients with atypical hyperplasia of endometrium, endometrial carcinoma and benign the uter-ine lesion. And to analyze the association between sTn and the pathologic stage and grade of endometrial carcinoma. Meth-ods sTn was detected by immunohistochemistry in 193 patient samples, including 93 subjects with endometrial carcinoma, 50 subjects with atypical hyperplasia of endometrium and 50 subjects with benign uterine lesions. Results The positive sTn rate in endometrial carcinoma group was 73.1%,which was significantly different from that in atypical hyperplasia endo-metrium group (32%) and that in benign uterine lesion group (14%), (P＜0.017). sTn positive rate in patients with endometri-al carcinoma was 78.8%which is higher than that in patients with other diseases (P＜0.008 ). The positive rate of sTn in pa-tients with poorly differentiated endometrial carcinoma was significantly higher than that in patients with highly differentiat-ed endometrial carcinoma (P＜0.017). The positive rate of sTn in tissues of tumor infiltration with depth of more than half of myometrial was significantly higher than in tissues of tumor infiltration with depth of equal or less than half of myometrial (P＜0.05). But there was no significant difference in sTn positive rate between the endometrial carcinoma groups with and without lymph node metastasis (P>0.05). Conclusion sTn may play a role in the tumorigenesis and development of endo-metrial carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between tumor-associated carbohydrate antigen sTn and endometrial carcinoma, and to evaluate the diagnostic value of 2 test methods. METHODS: A total of 200 patients were enrolled, including 100 subjects with endometrial carcinoma, 42 healthy nonpregnant women, 15 pregnant women without complications, and 43 patients with benign gynecologic diseases. The serum sTn-antigen concentrations were determined by 2 test methods (3P9 combined with 4A6, and B72.3 combined with CC49). RESULTS: There was a significant difference in the value and the positive rate of sTn in the serum between the subjects and the contrasts (P<0.05). The sTn level in the pregnant women was high. The sTn level in the serum and its positive rate in endometrial carcinoma became higher with the clinical stage. 3P9 combined with 4A6 was better than B72.3 combined with CC49 in the detection of sTn in the serum as to sensitivity, specificity, positive-prediction, negative-prediction, and accuracy. CONCLUSION The sTn antigen may become a new serological marker for the diagnosis of endometrial carcinoma, but pregnant women should be excluded. 3P9 combined with 4A6 is better than B72.3 combined with CC49 in the detection of sTn in the serum.
Antibodies, Neoplasm ; blood ; Antigens, Tumor-Associated, Carbohydrate ; immunology ; Biomarkers, Tumor ; blood ; Case-Control Studies ; Endometrial Neoplasms ; blood ; diagnosis ; Female ; Humans