Clinical significance of BCL11A expression in ER-negative and PR-negative endometrial carcinoma.

Objective: To study the mechanism and clinical significance of B-cell lymphoma/leukemia 11A (BCL11A) gene in the development of endometrial carcinoma (EC).

Methods: 100 EC, 20 normal endometrium and 20 atypical hyperplasia endometrium specimens were collected from West China Second University Hospital from January 2005 to January 2015. The expression of BCL11A was detected by immunohistochemistry and its relationships with clinicopathological features and survival were analyzed.

Results: The expression of BCL11A in ER-/PR-EC was higher than that in normal endometrium, atypical hyperplasia endometrium, and ER+/PR+EC (P < 0.001). The expression of BCL11A in EC was associated with age, menopause, EC classification, para-aortic lymph node metastasis, tumor differentiation, histological type, ER/PR expression and p53 expression (P < 0.05). The expression of BCL11A in the deceased group was significantly higher than that in the survival group (P = 0.011). Survival analysis indicated that the high expression of BCL11A was associated with low survival rate (P < 0.001).

Conclusions: BCL11A may play an important role in the development of ER-/PR-EC. It may serve as a potential target for therapy and a predict factor for prognosis. It can also provide molecular basis for new EC classification.