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Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences

Author ORCID Identifier

OSMAN TÜRKMEN: 0000-0002-1470-7731

KAMİL', 'KAMİL HAKAN MÜFTÜOĞLU: 0000-0003-4069-0002

NAZMİYE DİNÇER: 0000-0001-6478-7808

ZELİHA', 'ZELİHA ESİN ÇELİK: 0000-0002-3220-7845

SERRA AKAR İNAN: 0000-0002-0466-140X

DOI

10.55730/1300-0144.5852

Abstract

Background/Aim: Uterine leiomyosarcomas (uLMS) are extremely rare high-grade tumors with a poor prognosis. Their etiopathogenesis remains largely unknown. The uterus is the most frequent site for LMS. uLMS and uterine leiomyoma (uLM) must frequently be differentiated in patients with a uterine mass. Nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT), a cytoplasmic protein, is involved in the progression and spread of a variety of cancer types. The expression of NNMT in a mesenchymal malignancy was not examined previously. This study represents the first investigation into NNMT expression in uLMS, uLM and benign uterine myometrium and correlates NNMT overexpression with worse prognosis in uLMS. Materials/Methods: The expression of NNMT was investigated by immunohistochemistry on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue of uLMS in 31 patients, uLM in 7 patients and benign myometria in 31 patients.Results: The expression of NNMT in uLMS was markedly higher than in uLM and normal myometrial tissue (p<0.001). The expression of NNMT in early-stage uLMS was lower than in advanced-stage disease (p=0.034). NNMT expression was an independent prognostic factor in predicting recurrence-free survival in uLMS (p = 0.037).Conclusion: NNMT can aid in the preoperative differentiation of uLMS and uLM. The consequences of NNMT overexpression such as the activation and inactivation of onco-proteins and tumor suppressor proteins, respectively as well as the enrichment of the cancer stem cell population overlap with the major mechanisms responsible for poor prognosis in mesenchymal tumors. NNMT may be investigated further in the context of anti-tumor treatment in patients with mesenchymal malignancies.

Keywords

Cancer progression, Metastasis, Nicotinamide N-methyltransferase, Survival, Uterine leiomyomas, Uterine leiomyosarcomas

First Page

804

Last Page

810

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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