Expression of oestrogen and progesterone receptors in gastric cancer: a flow cytometric study

Abstract

Summary Increased expression of oestrogen (ER) and progesterone (PR) receptors have been reported in gastric adenocarcinoma, although results have been variable. Immunohistochemical staining methodologies, in particular in the detection of ER, have been inconsistent with many tumours being classified ER-negative. In this study we have used flow cytometry to quantify expression of ER and PR in gastric adenocarcinoma and examine their relationships with established prognostic indicators. Cytokeratin-positive cells obtained from tumour biopsies of 50 patients with gastric cancer and ten control patients were labelled with biotinylated ER or PR antibodies followed by streptavidin PE. Flow cytometry was seen to increase the detection of ER levels in gastric cancer with more receptor-positive patients in this study than in results published to date. We believe this is related to the sensitivity of the flow cytometric assay with the detection of small shifts in ER level detected using cytokeratin gating. On analysis, the data showed no significant correlations with tumour stage and grade, and no differences were seen between normal mucosa and gastric cancer samples.

Expression, Function, and Clinical Implications of the Estrogen Receptor β in Human Lung Cancers

“…Indeed, the expression status of ER␣ is regarded as a good predictor of prognosis with endocrine treatment for these cancers. ER␣ expression has also been assessed in other cancers, such as hepatocarcinomas (19), and gastric cancers (20,21), for which gender differences have been suggested from clinicopathological data. Although several reports have suggested the presence of ER␣ in human lung cancer (22)(23)(24)(25)(26), the results are somewhat inconsistent and do not seem to be important from a clinicopathological perspective.…”

Oestrogen receptor-α contributes to the regulation of the hedgehog signalling pathway in ERα-positive gastric cancer

“…Oestrogen-bound ERs bind as homodimers or heterodimers to a specific DNA sequence known as the oestrogen-responsive element (ERE), and regulate the transcription of target genes (Matthews and Gustafsson, 2003). As oestrogen is a stimulant for the initiation and promotion of breast cancer, and ERa can be expressed in gastric cancer cells, it has been suggested that the ERa pathway may have a role in the progression of gastric cancer (Harrison et al, 1989b;Wu et al, 1994;Karat et al, 1999;Takano et al, 2002;Chandanos et al, 2008). In gastric cancer, ERa expression is higher in the diffuse type than in the intestinal type (Kitaoka, 1983;Tokunaga et al, 1986;Matsui et al, 1992;Zhao et al, 2003), and oestradiol (E2) enhances gastric cancer cell proliferation in vitro (Matsui et al, 1992;Takano et al, 2002).…”

A MAP3k1 SNP Predicts Survival of Gastric Cancer in a Chinese Population

“…Previous studies have suggested that the steroid hormone-mediated signaling pathway has an important role in the progression of gastric cancer [20] – [22] . Of the hormones implicated in relating to gastric cancer, estrogen was reported to be closely involved in gastric cancer carcinogenesis and development.…”