Expression and clinical significance of E-cadherin and β-catenin in the vulvar squamous cell carcinoma tissues

To investigate the expression of E-cadherin and β-catenin in the Vulvar squamous cell carcinoma (VSCC) tissues. A total of 63 documented paraffin blocks of VSCC (n=41), vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (n=22), vulvar negative cutting edge tissues (n=10) diagnosed in department of pathology of Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University from January 2005 to April 2012 were enrolled. EliVision immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the expression of E-cadherin and β-catenin in the three groups. Then to do a statistical analysis among the expression of them with patients' menopause status, pathological grade, clinical stage and lymph node metastasis. Spearman correlation analysis was used to analyse the expression of E-cadherin and β-catenin in the vulvar lesion tissues. The abnormal immunoreactivity for E-cadherin [46%(19/41), 64% (14/22)] and β-catenin [61% (25/41), 68% (15/22)] in VSCC and VINII-III were found, which were significantly different from that in normal epithelium samples (P