E-cadherin and β-catenin expression in early stage cervical carcinoma: A tissue microarray study of 147 cases

Background The disruption of intercellular adhesions is an important component of the acquisition of invasive properties in epithelial malignancies. Alterations in the cell-cell adhesion complex, E-Cadherin/β-Catenin, have been implicated in the oncogenesis of carcinomas arising from various anatomic sites and have been correlated with adverse clinico-pathologic parameters. In this study, the authors investigated the immunohistochemical expression of E-Cadherin and β-Catenin in a cohort of early stage cervical cancers to determine its prognostic significance and to investigate differences between the three major histological subtypes.