Bcl-2 may play a role in the progression of endometrial hyperplasia and early carcinogenesis, but not linked to further tumorigenesis(☆)

The role of Bcl-2 in initiation and progression of endometrial carcinoma is still with inconsistent results. The aim of this study is to determine the role of Bcl-2 in endometrial tumorigenesis. It is a retrospective cross sectional study. We used 100 endometrial paraffin embedded specimens for Bcl-2 oncoprotein immunohistochemical staining; 20 samples of normal endometrium, 40 specimens of endometrial hyperplasia (simple, complex and atypical) and 40 specimens of endometrioid adenocarcinoma. The results were statistically analyzed. There was a significant increase in Bcl-2 staining from normal through complex and atypical hyperplasia into well differentiated adenocarcinoma (P =0.002, P =0.0008 and P =0.0001, respectively). There was a significant difference between the staining of different types of endometrial hyperplasia; as it up streamed from the simple through the complex up to the atypical types (P <0.05). Bcl-2 staining showed no significant correlation with the moderately, poorly differentiated and the different stages of adenocarcinoma (P =0.6, P =0.29 and P =0.1 respectively). These results might indicate a substantial role for Bcl-2 as one of the initiating drives for endometrial tumorigenesis, but not in further tumor progression.