FLOW CYTOMETRIC CELL-CYCLE KINETICS AND QUANTITATIVE MEASUREMENT OF C-ERBB-2 AND MUTANT P53 PROTEINS IN NORMAL, HYPERPLASTIC, AND MALIGNANTENDOMETRIAL BIOPSIES

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to biologically characterize endometrial hyperplasia by investigating changes in DNA ploidy pattern , the expression of c-erbB-2 p185 and mutant p53 proteins. Methods and Results: Our results show that all normal endometria (n = 62) were ex clusively diploid and 2 (2.5%) of 79 endometrial hyperplasias and 22 ( 68.8%) of 32 endometrial carcinomas were aneuploid, Upper 95% normal v alues for synthetic phase fraction (SPF), c-erbs-2 and p53 were applie d as cut-off values to discriminate between normal and malignant endom etria. When 9%, 3.2 HNU (Human Neu Unit)/mu g protein, and 0.39 ng/mg protein were used as cut-off values for SPF, c-erbB-2, and p53 respect ively, 13.9%, 20.2%, and 0% of endometrial hyperplasia and 50%, 56.3%, and 12.5% of endometrial carcinoma showed raised levels of the corres ponding parameters. Conclusions: Our results indicate that subsets of endometrial hyperplasia are biologically different as evidenced by the presence of DNA aneuploidy, high SPF and c-erbB-2 overexpression, whi ch may provide biological markers for assessing progression to endomet rial carcinoma.