Expression of hormone receptors predicts survival and platinum sensitivity of high-grade serous ovarian cancer

Abstract

High-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) has abundant expression of hormone receptors, including androgen receptor (AR), estrogen receptor α (ER), and progesterone receptor (PR). The effects of hormone receptors on prognosis of HGSOC were first evaluated in online databases. Their prognostic values were then explored and validated in our inhouse TJ-cohort (92 HGSOC patients) and in a validation cohort (33 HGSOC patients), wherein hormone receptors were detected immunohistochemically. High expression of hormone receptors denoted longer progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and platinum-free interval (PFI). Platinum-sensitive patients had higher expression of hormone receptors than their counterparts. Correlation analysis revealed significant positive correlations between hormone receptors expression and survival. AR, ER, and PR had predictive and prognostic values, alone and in combination. By receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis, co-expression of AR, ER, and PR had an improved predictive performance with an area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.945. Expression of hormone receptors predicts survival and platinum sensitivity of HGSOC. AR, ER, and PR might be feasible prognostic biomarkers for HGSOC by immunohistochemical analysis.

What’s beyond BRCA Mutational Status in High Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer? The Impact of Hormone Receptor Expression in a Large BRCA-Profiled Ovarian Cancer Patient Series: A Retrospective Cohort Study

“…Interestingly, we further observed a PR expression suggestive of a favourable survival of HGSOC and indicative of platinum sensitivity as well, consistent with previous literature [ 10 , 36 ]. Likewise, the observed lack of association between ERα levels and survival in HGSOC patients observed in our study is consistent with a large study conducted by the Ovarian Tumour Tissue Analysis consortium of 1742 HGSOCs [ 10 ].…”

Diagnostic and Prognostic Impact of Progesterone Receptor Immunohistochemistry: A Study Evaluating More Than 16,000 Tumors

“…PR positivity was found in 62% of endometroid but only in 32% of high grade serous ovarian carcinomas. This is in line with earlier studies describing 41-67% PR positivity in endometroid [40][41][42][43] but only 25-50% PR positivity in high-grade serous carcinomas of the ovary [43,44]. In the uterus, endometrioid carcinomas (67%) also showed a much higher rate of PR positivity than serous carcinomas (21%).…”

Hormone Receptors and Epithelial Ovarian Cancer: Recent Advances in Biology and Treatment Options

“…Moreover, two recent meta-analyses confirmed the favorable prognostic role of ER [ 74 ] and PR [ 75 ] expression in terms of PFS and OS. ER expression was also associated with less aggressive histological features such as lower lymphovascular space invasion [ 76 ], and both ER and PR have also been found to be related to platinum sensitivity [ 77 ]. However, a recent meta-analysis questioned these findings, as the use of different antibody clones to determine ER immunohistochemical expression may have influenced the results of previous prognostic studies [ 78 ].…”