Prognostic value of cytoplasmic expression of S100A4 protein in endometrial carcinoma

The S100A4 protein, a member of the S100 family of calcium-binding proteins, has been considered as a candidate prognostic marker in patients with cancer. The present study was conducted to evaluate the prognostic value of S100A4 and to examine its correlation with the clinicopathological parameters and the overall survival and progression-free survival in patients with endometrial carcinoma (EC). To do this, we performed immunohistochemistry of formalin-fixed tissue sections obtained from 135 cases of EC. In addition, we quantified the level of S100A4 mRNA using the quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The cytoplasmic expression of S100A4 protein was observed in 35 cases (25.9%). There was a significant association between the expression of S100A4 and clinicopathological parameters such as histologic grade, FIGO stage, lymph node metastasis and loss of progesterone receptor (PR). qRT-PCR demonstrated that the level of S100A4 mRNA was significantly higher in ECs as compared with normal endometrium. The cytoplasmic expression of S100A4 had a significant correlation with shorter overall survival and progression-free survival on the Kaplan-Meyer survival analysis. In multi-variate analysis, there was a significant correlation between S100A4 expression and a poorer OS. In conclusion, our results indicate that S100A4 may be a biological marker indicating the recurrence and poor prognosis in patients with EC.