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The EMT signaling pathways in endometrial carcinoma

  • Educational Series – BLUE SERIES
  • Advances in Translational Oncology
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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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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biomedical Research Unit, Vall d’Hebron Research Institute and University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain

    Eva Colas, Nuria Pedrola, Laura Devis, Tugçe Ertekin, Irene Campoy, Elena Martínez, Marta Llauradó, Marina Rigau, Mireia Olivan, Marta Garcia, Andreas Doll & Jaume Reventos

  2. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Eva Colas, Nuria Pedrola, Laura Devis, Tugçe Ertekin, Irene Campoy, Elena Martínez, Marta Llauradó, Marina Rigau, Mireia Olivan, Marta Garcia, Andreas Doll & Jaume Reventos

  3. Servei de Ginecologia, Hospital Vall d’Hebron, Barcelona, Spain

    Silvia Cabrera, Antonio Gil-Moreno & Jordi Xercavins

  4. Servei de Patologia, Hospital Vall d’Hebron, Barcelona, Spain

    Josep Castellvi, Angel Garcia & Santiago Ramon y Cajal

  5. Departamento de Bioquímica-IIB CSIC-UAM, IdiPAZ and Fundación MD Anderson Internacional, Madrid, Spain

    Gema Moreno-Bueno

  6. Servei de Patologia, Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, Spain

    Francesc Alameda

  7. Servicio de Patología, Hospital Virgen del Rocío, Sevilla, Spain

    Jose Palacios

  8. Servei de Patologia, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain

    Jaime Prat

  9. Servei de Patologia, Hospital Arnau de Vilanova, Lleida, Spain

    Xavier Dolcet & Xavier Matias-Guiu

  10. Complejo Hospitalario de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Miguel Abal

  11. Department de Ciències Bàsiques, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

    Jaume Reventos

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  1. Eva Colas
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  2. Nuria Pedrola
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Correspondence to Jaume Reventos.

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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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