Oncogenic Role of Engrailed (EN)-2 in Epithelial Ovarian Neoplasms

Epithelial ovarian carcinomas represent more than 90% of all ovarian carcinomas. Treatment of these ovarian carcinomas on basis of their histopathological features didn't improve patients' outcomes with very high incidence of relapses and resistance to therapy. Detection of novel biological markers which are involved in tumor progression could have promising results if these biological molecules are targeted and blocked by new medications.

Engrailed-2 is a protein encoded by a gene located on chromosome 7. Engrailed-2 is involved in neural development and neural connections during embryological life. it has been proved that Engrailed-2 is expressed in non neural neoplasms, especially in prostatic and urinary bladder carcinomas. Now estimatiion of urinary and serum levels of Engrailed-2 is used as a non-invasive screening tool in to detect prostatic and urinary bladder carcinomas. We aim to evaluated immunohistochemical expression of Engrailed-2 in normal and neoplastic ovarian tissues and to compare such expression between normal and neoplastic tissues in order to improve its oncogenic role in ovarian carcinoma.

Inclusion criteria

• All types of epithelial ovarian neoplasms (benign, borderline and malignant).

Exclusion criteria

• Non-epithelial and/ or secondary ovarian tumors.
• Cases with poor clinical data.
• Cases who had history of pre-operative chemotherapy.