The Association of Body Mass Index and Ki67 Values in Patients with Endometrial Carcinoma

Endometrial cancer begins in the layer of cells that form the lining (endometrium) of the uterus. Endometrial cancer is often detected at an early stage because it frequently produces abnormal vaginal bleeding, which prompts women to see their doctors. If endometrial cancer is discovered early, removing the uterus surgically often cures endometrial cancer. The study included all patients who had been evaluated for vaginal bleeding in Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of Clinical Emergency County Hospital, Timisoara between 2016-2018. Of the 195 cases of uterus scraping, 19 cases were labelled as malignant endometrial pathology. For the statistical analysis we calculated some descriptive statistics for the age parameter and the BMI (body mass index) parameter in our disease sample and we compared the BMI values to the BMI values from the control sample As well, we tested to see if there is an association between the Ki-67 values and the HER-2 / neu status in patients with or without endometrial carcinoma. In order to test the significance we applied a Mann - Whitney test, for alpha = 0.05 set as a confidence level. Unfortunately, in the case of our study group, type 1 endometrial cancers are found in only 5 cases, unlike other countries where most of endometrial cancers are diagnosed early (80% in the first stage) and the 5-year survival rate is about 95%. In any case, the 5-year survival rate is much lower if there is involvement of regional lymph nodes or distant metastasis (68% and 17%, respectively) - as in our case where all cases were classified as Stage III and IV. By running the statistical test we obtained extremely significant differences in the BMI of our patients (p< 0.001), the diseased patients tend to have higher BMI values. As well, when we tested the possible association between the Ki-67 values and the HER-2 / neu status in our two groups (patients with or without endometrial carcinoma) we obtained extremely significant differences (p< 0.001). The Ki-67 values are increasing proportionally with the carcinoma staging. An endometrial biopsy is the most commonly used test for endometrial cancer and is very accurate in postmenopausal women.