Kartsiounis Vasileios, Meditskou Soultana, Siargkas Antonios, Pervana Stavroula, Pazarli Elisavet, Kalogiannidis Ioannis A, Zouzoulas Dimitrios, Tsolakidis Dimitrios, Papanikolaou Alexios, Dinas Konstantinos
3rd Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Ippokrateio General Hospital, Thessaloniki, GRC.
Department of Histology and Embryology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, GRC.
Cureus. 2025 Mar 29;17(3):e81402. doi: 10.7759/cureus.81402. eCollection 2025 Mar.
Background and objectives Endometrial cancer, the most prevalent gynecologic malignancy in developed countries, poses a major public health concern. NUMB, a multifunctional protein, has been implicated in the tumorigenesis of endometrial cancer. The goal of this study was to investigate the association of NUMB protein expression with clinicopathological characteristics and prognostic outcomes in patients with endometrial cancer. Methods A retrospective cohort study was performed on 41 patients with endometrial cancer who were divided into three groups according to the expression level of NUMB protein using immunohistochemistry: NUMB 1 (mild), NUMB 2 (moderate), and NUMB 3 (significant). Statistical analyses, including ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis test, chi-squared test, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, Cox proportional hazards model, and regression analyses, were used to assess the relationship between NUMB expression and survival as well as various clinicopathological parameters. Results Significant NUMB expression (NUMB 3) was found to be correlated with more aggressive clinicopathological characteristics, including higher tumor grade (p = 0.039), larger tumor size (p = 0.016), and elevated recurrence rate (p = 0.033). Patients with NUMB 3 expression also exhibited significantly poorer overall survival (p = 0.003) and had a 10-fold higher mortality risk compared to those with mild NUMB expression (HR: 9.67, p = 0.034) during the 10-year follow-up period. Conclusion This study demonstrates that significant NUMB protein expression is associated with aggressive clinicopathological features and poor prognostic outcomes in endometrial cancer. NUMB may serve as a potential prognostic biomarker for this disease. Further research is warranted to elucidate the precise role of NUMB in endometrial carcinogenesis and its therapeutic implications.
子宫内膜癌是发达国家最常见的妇科恶性肿瘤，引起了重大的公共卫生关注。NUMB是一种多功能蛋白，与子宫内膜癌的肿瘤发生有关。本研究的目的是探讨NUMB蛋白表达与子宫内膜癌患者临床病理特征及预后结果之间的关联。方法：对41例子宫内膜癌患者进行回顾性队列研究，采用免疫组织化学方法根据NUMB蛋白表达水平将患者分为三组：NUMB 1（轻度）、NUMB 2（中度）和NUMB 3（显著）。采用方差分析、Kruskal-Wallis检验、卡方检验、Kaplan-Meier生存分析、Cox比例风险模型和回归分析等统计方法，评估NUMB表达与生存以及各种临床病理参数之间的关系。结果：发现显著的NUMB表达（NUMB 3）与更具侵袭性的临床病理特征相关，包括更高的肿瘤分级（p = 0.039）、更大的肿瘤大小（p = 0.016）和更高的复发率（p = 0.033）。在10年随访期内，NUMB 3表达的患者总体生存率也显著较差（p = 0.003），与轻度NUMB表达的患者相比，死亡风险高10倍（HR：9.67，p = 0.034）。结论：本研究表明，显著的NUMB蛋白表达与子宫内膜癌侵袭性临床病理特征和不良预后结果相关。NUMB可能作为该疾病的潜在预后生物标志物。有必要进一步研究以阐明NUMB在子宫内膜癌发生中的精确作用及其治疗意义。
