Clinical significance of pmTOR expression in endometrioid endometrial carcinoma

ObjectiveEndometrial adenocarcinoma has been proposed, due to frequent activation of the PI3K/AKT pathway, as a candidate neoplasm for treatment with mTOR inhibitors. However, data on the expression of mTOR in endometrial cancer are lacking.Study designWe used immunohistochemistry to evaluate the expression of pmTOR in 62 endometrial cancer surgical specimens.ResultsThe pmTOR protein was diffusely expressed in the cytoplasm of neoplastic epithelial cells, showing variable intensity. According to the chosen cutoff value, 34 (54.8%) out of 62 patients were scored as pmTOR-positive. pmTOR expression was significantly decreased in carcinomas with deep infiltration into the myometrium (P = .009), though it was not correlated with disease stage or lymph node metastasis. Univariate analysis showed that increased expression of pmTOR was significantly associated with better disease-free survival (P = .021).ConclusionsWe show for the first time an association between pmTOR and better survival in patients with endometrial cancer. Future studies to stratify endometrial tumors by pmTOR status are needed.