Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology

, Volume 143, Issue 11, pp 2183–2188 | Cite as

Disseminated tumor cells are not associated with established risk factors, L1CAM immunoreactivity and outcome in endometrial carcinoma

  • Stefan Kommoss
  • Andreas D. Hartkopf
  • Bernhard Krämer
  • Anne-Kathrin Bunz
  • Friederike Grevenkamp
  • Felix Kommoss
  • Jana Pasternak
  • Sabine M. Arbabi
  • Markus Wallwiener
  • Annette Staebler
  • Sigurd F. Lax
  • Sara Y. Brucker
  • Florin-Andrei Taran
Original Article – Cancer Research
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Purpose

The presence of disseminated tumor cells (DTC) in the bone marrow of endometrial carcinoma patients has been demonstrated previously. In contrast to breast cancer, no prognostic significance or association with clinicopathological features was revealed for endometrial carcinoma so far. The aim of this study was to investigate DTC in a large patient cohort with in-depth pathology review data available and to study DTC occurrence in the context of L1CAM and long-term disease specific follow-up.

Methods

Patients treated for endometrial carcinoma at the Tuebingen University Women’s hospital between 2003 and 2013 were identified. Cases with previous expert central pathology review including L1CAM immunohistochemistry and bone marrow aspirates available were selected. The presence of DTC and L1CAM expression was studied immunohistochemically.

Results

In 395 cases with a confirmed diagnosis of endometrial carcinoma, bone marrow aspirates were available. DTC were detected in 17.2%. The presence of DTC was independent from tumor histology, grade, lymphovascular space involvement (LVSI), FIGO stage, myoinvasion, L1CAM immunoreactivity, and nodal metastasis. DTC occurred less frequently in cases with a microcystic elongated and fragmented (MELF) pattern of invasion (2.2 vs. 21.8%, p = 0.0003). Disease progression was distributed equally among patients with and without DTC present.

Conclusions

We were able to confirm previous findings of DTC presence in a large well-characterized cohort of endometrial carcinoma patients. DTC are detectable in almost one-fifth of endometrial carcinoma and occur less frequently with a MELF pattern of invasion. Further studies investigating the role of DTC in endometrial carcinoma are warranted.

Keywords

Disseminated tumor cells Endometrial carcinoma L1CAM Risk classification Prognosis 
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Notes

Compliance with ethical standards

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

Study approval was obtained from the Independent Ethics Committee of the University of Tübingen. All procedures were performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee.

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  • Stefan Kommoss
    • 1
  • Andreas D. Hartkopf
    • 1
  • Bernhard Krämer
    • 1
  • Anne-Kathrin Bunz
    • 1
  • Friederike Grevenkamp
    • 1
  • Felix Kommoss
    • 1
  • Jana Pasternak
    • 1
  • Sabine M. Arbabi
    • 1
  • Markus Wallwiener
    • 2
  • Annette Staebler
    • 3
  • Sigurd F. Lax
    • 4
  • Sara Y. Brucker
    • 1
  • Florin-Andrei Taran
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of Women’s HealthTübingen University HospitalTübingenGermany
  2. 2.Department of Obstetrics and GynecologyUniversity of HeidelbergHeidelbergGermany
  3. 3.Institute of PathologyTübingen University HospitalTübingenGermany
  4. 4.Institute of PathologyLKH Graz WestGrazAustria

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