The endometrial biopsy was taken in the mid-lutheal phase of the menstrual cycle from a woman with recurrent implantation failure (RIF). Extremely high percentage of stromal and luminal epithelial cells were p16-positive. The observed strong and constitutive expression was significantly different from the p16-expression in the functional layer of endometrium from the other studied patients (more than 200). The studied endometrial tissue was negative for pax-2 and has a “normal” progesterone receptor and estrogen receptor expression. Does anyone have an idea what is the possible explanation for this? Is it possible this p16 expression to be due to a certain pathological condition?
Article P-16INK4a Expression in Undifferentiated Carcinoma of the Ut...
I'm not a doctor, I am a biologist who worked on cancer previously, and sometimes work on cancer cells now. I was taught that p16 is BAD, and you should have a "heads up!!" reaction whenever you find it overexpressed (see the article). I would check the HPV positivity in the woman, possibly try to get genome data on her (for any unusual cancer-associated mutations, I'm not sure how much and what you can do in your setting) and generally monitor her in the future regularly. Because p16 is NOT GOOD, p16 means "think cancer". So I was taught, at least.
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