PURPOSE: Vav3 is a guanine nucleotide exchange factor that regulates the activity of Rho/Rac family GTPases. In a study on ovarian cancer, we recently demonstrated pronounced prognostic and predictive value of Vav3.1, a specific truncation variant of the parental Vav3 gene. Here, we sought to investigate the role of Vav3.1 in the most prevalent gynecological tumor entity, endometrial cancer. METHODS: Vav3.1 transcript levels were determined in a large cohort of endometrial cancer patients using variant-specific PCR (n = 239), and non-malignant endometrial tissue served as control (n = 26). Expression levels of Vav3.1 were stratified according to established clinicopathological characteristics and correlated to long-term patient survival (average follow-up of > 7.5 years). Type 1 and type 2 cancers were separately investigated. RESULTS: While Vav3.1 was markedly overexpressed in endometrial cancer tissue, we could not detect associations with clinical parameters related to prognosis, such as FIGO stage and tumor grade. Kaplan-Meier estimators of different measures of survival failed to show prognostic significance of Vav3.1 in endometrial cancer. Lack of prognostic value was observed for both type 1 and type 2 cancers. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that Vav3.1 is not suited as a marker of cancer progression and/or treatment response in endometrial cancer. Feasibility and potential benefit of targeting Vav3.1 in endometrial cancer needs to be evaluated in future studies, proceeding from its clear, roughly ten-fold, induction in the malignant endometrium.

• Keywords
• Cancer, Endometrial cancer, Guanine nucleotide exchange factor, Protein isoform, Transcript variant, Vav3,
• MeSH
• Adenocarcinoma, Clear Cell genetics   pathology   therapy   MeSH
• Adult MeSH
• Combined Modality Therapy MeSH
• Middle Aged MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Survival Rate MeSH
• Biomarkers, Tumor genetics   MeSH
• Endometrial Neoplasms genetics   pathology   therapy   MeSH
• Follow-Up Studies MeSH
• Prognosis MeSH
• Protein Isoforms MeSH
• Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-vav genetics   MeSH
• Retrospective Studies MeSH
• Aged, 80 and over MeSH
• Aged MeSH
• Cystadenocarcinoma, Serous genetics   pathology   therapy   MeSH
• Case-Control Studies MeSH
• Check Tag
• Adult MeSH
• Middle Aged MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Aged, 80 and over MeSH
• Aged MeSH
• Female MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Names of Substances
• Biomarkers, Tumor MeSH
• Protein Isoforms MeSH
• Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-vav MeSH
• VAV3 protein, human MeSH Browser