Abstract
Endometrial cancer (EC) is the most common gynecologic malignancy of the female genital tract and the fourth most common neoplasia in women. In EC, myometrial invasion is considered one of the most important prognostic factors. For this process to occur, epithelial tumor cells need to undergo an epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), either transiently or stably, and to differing degrees. This process has been extensively described in other types of cancer but has been poorly studied in EC. In this review, several features of EMT and the main molecular pathways responsible for triggering this process are investigated in relation to EC. The most common hallmarks of EMT have been found in EC, either at the level of E-cadherin loss or at the induction of its repressors, as well as other molecular alterations consistent with the mesenchymal phenotype-like L1CAM and BMI-1 up-regulation. Pathways including progesterone receptor, TGFβ, ETV5 and microRNAs are deeply related to the EMT process in EC.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Lisa Piccione for correction of the manuscript. This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (SAF 2005-06771; SAF 2008-03996; SAF 2010-10635-E; SAF2011-26548), CENIT Program (CENIT/01/2006) and RTICC Program (RTICC RD06/0020/0058 and RD06/0020/1034), the Catalan Institute of Health and the Department of Universities and Research, Catalan Government (2009SGR00487, 2005SGR00553), the ACCIO Program (RDITSCON07-1-0001), the Foundation La Marato de TV3 (Grant 050431), the IV Grant Fundació Santiago Dexeus Font for Clinical Investigation Projects 2009, the National Programme of Biotechnology (FIT-010000-2007-26), the Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer (AECC) and the European Commission Program Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER).
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Colas, E., Pedrola, N., Devis, L. et al. The EMT signaling pathways in endometrial carcinoma. Clin Transl Oncol 14, 715–720 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-012-0866-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-012-0866-3