Abstract
Author(s): PIOTR BODZEK, MIROSÅAW OGRODNIK, IWONA JANOSZ-GAÅDYÅ, KATARZYNAOLSZAK-WÄSIK, ANITA OLEJEK
Introduction. Cancer of the endometrium is the most common gynaecologic malignancy in thedeveloped countries. No tumour markers of appropriate sensitivity and specificity have beenidentified yet for diagnosing and monitoring the treatment of endometrial cancer. Heat shockproteins (Hsp) are known to be excessively expressed in a number of malignancies in humans, including gynaecological cancers. The presence of Hsp and anti-Hsp antibodies in the serumof female patients with gynaecological cancers is a very new area of research.Purpose. This study is intended to investigate concentrations of anti-heat shock proteinimmunoglobulin G (IgG) serum antibodies in patients suffering from endometrial cancer.Materials and methods. The study included 59 female patients with preliminary diagnosis ofendometrial cancer based on histopathological examination. The control group consisted of 54healthy female subjects attending routine gynaecological examination. Blood samples werecollected for routine preoperative testing prior to the beginning of anticancer therapy. Anti-heat shock protein immunoglobulin G (IgG) serum antibodies (anti-Hsp65) levels were me-asured by means of an immunoenzymatic test (ELISA). The distribution of variables was verifiedfor compliance using the Shapiro-Wilk test. Inter-group comparisons were analysed with non-parametric Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and Mann-Whitney U-test. P<0.05 was considered sta-tistically significant.Results. Average levels of anti-Hsp65 IgG serum antibodies in women with endometrial can-cer were found to be significantly higher than in healthy controls. It was also demonstratedthat the more clinically advanced tumour stage, the higher the serum levels of anti-heat shockprotein serum antibodies.Conclusions. Anti-heat shock protein (HSP-65) antibodies levels are elevated in women withendometrial cancer. Testing the levels of Hsp65 and anti-Hsp65 antibodies may be of predic-tive value in diagnosing and monitoring the treatment of this type of cancer.