Evaluation of estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and Ki 67 immunoexpression in epithelial ovarian tumors with histopathological correlation

Abstract

Background: Ovarian cancer ranks sixth among women’s cancers globally and seventh among cancer-related deaths. Around 90% of ovarian cancers have an epithelial genesis. Steroid hormones like progesterone and estrogen largely influence the development of ovarian cancers. In ovarian neoplasms, the proliferation marker Ki 67 helps forecast the course of the disease. Objective: To study the immunohistochemical expression pattern of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and Ki 67 in the surface epithelial ovarian tumors (SEOTs) and correlate the findings with the standard histopathological. Materials and Methods: This prospective study was conducted in the Department of Pathology, MKCG Medical College and Hospital, Brahmapur, from November 2020 to October 2022 on 62 surface epithelial ovarian tumor cases. All the patients were evaluated for standard histopathological parameters and immuno-histochemistry (IHC) status using ER, PR, and Ki 67 as primary antibodies. Results: A total of 62 cases of SEOTs constituted the study group, of which 42 (67.74%) were benign, 5 (8.06%) were borderline, and 15 (24.2%) were malignant on histopathological evaluation: serous SEOTs (41, 66.12%), mucinous SEOTs (18, 29.03%), endometrioid SEOTs (2, 3.22%), and clear cell carcinoma (1, 1.61%). ER expression was more in malignant tumors (10/15; 66.66%) than in borderline (3/5; 60%) and benign (11/42; 26.19%), but the expression of PR was more in benign (27/42; 64.28%), followed by borderline (3/5; 60%) and malignant (8/15; 53.33%) SEOTs. Expression of Ki 67 was found to be more malignant (14/15; 93.33%) than borderline (4/5; 80%) and benign (2/42; 4.76%) SEOTs. Conclusion: ER and Ki 67 were expressed more in malignant, followed by borderline and benign, whereas PR expression was more innocent than borderline and malignant.

Eosinophilic Cells in Ovarian Borderline Serous Tumors as a Predictor of BRAF Mutation

“…Steroid receptors have also been proposed as a beneficial prognostic marker [38][39][40][41], but recent literature has provided conflicting results. While some studies found that steroid receptor status can be used as a prognostic factor [42], the others could not confirm any prognostic value [43], or only one of the steroid receptors (progesterone or estrogen) showed positive prognostic potential [44,45]. Nevertheless, the cut-off value and method for assessing steroid receptor status have yet to be finalized and are still not recommended to be included in the guidelines and protocols for the diagnosis and treatment of SBTs.…”

“…Based on the above, several studies have produced estimates of different potential prognostic biomarkers [35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45], but there is still insufficient data to determine the most valid one.…”