Hormone receptor status in human endometrial adenocarcinoma

Abstract

Steroid receptor levels were determined in 196 samples of endometrial adenocarcinoma: cytosol estradiol receptors (ERc) were measured in 171 samples, cytosol progesterone receptors (PRc) in all samples; nuclear estradiol receptors (ERn) and nuclear progesterone receptors (PRn) in 68 samples; total estradiol receptors (ERt = ERc plus ERn) and total progesterone receptors (PRt = PRc plus PRn) were measured in 68 samples. The ERc levels were 88.2 +/- 8.9 (mean +/- SEM) and ERn were 94.4 +/- 15.6 fmol/mg protein; PRc levels were 197.9 +/- 25.9 and PRn 178.3 +/- 55.9 fmol/mg protein. The ERt levels were 162.6 +/- 23.2 and PRt 249.8 +/- 75.7 fmol/mg protein. The presence of PRc was related to the ERc levels according to the cut-off used. Estradiol receptors (ER) and progesterone receptors (PR) were present in the cytoplasmic and nuclear fractions in 60.2% and 36.8% of cases, respectively. The simultaneous presence of both ERt and PRt was observed only in 27.9% of cases. In the normal endometrium ERc and PRc were negatively correlated (r = -0.525, P less than 0.005), whereas in endometrial adenocarcinoma the correlation was positive (r = 0.491, P less than 0.001). In contrast with the normal endometrium the correlation between ERc and ERn was positive (r = 0.582, P less than 0.001) in tumor tissue. In neoplastic tissue Scatchard analysis showed a single class of specific ERc sites with a dissociation constant (Kd) of 1.39 +/- 0.8 X 10(-9) mol/l, one tenth of that found in the normal premenopausal endometrium. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the receptor status showed that in 30% to 40% of cases studied the behavior of the neoplastic cell was similar to that found in the normal endometrial cell. In a 4-year follow-up of patients affected by endometrial adenocarcinoma there is better survival in the groups of patients with a simultaneous presence of ERt and PRt than in the group with their absence.

Endometrial carcinoma: association of steroid hormone receptor expression with low angiogenesis and bcl-2 expression

“…With regard to myometrial invasion, Kauppila, Morris, Fukuda and their associates reported results comparable to ours [13,20,25]. Moreover, Kauppila and colleagues found that the simultaneous presence of ER and PR is associated with a favourable survival for stage-I and -II endometrial tumours [20], and others extended this observation to include recurrent or advanced stage endometrial disease [5,7,9]. Others found that ER [5,13] or PR alone [10] is a better indicator of prognosis, and still others failed to attach any prognostic significance in the receptor status of endometrial malignancies [12,25].…”

“…During malignant transformation, the endometrial cells may lose some or all of their steroid hormone compliment [9,32], and this phenomenon has been connected with partial or complete loss of hormone dependence. In many studies, such tumours were shown to exhibit a more aggressive phenotype, poorer prognosis [5,9,19,20] and an ineffective response to endocrine therapy [5,9,10,32,42].…”

“…Not all malignant endometrial tissues, however, retain their ER and PR complement, as a variable number of them lose, either partially or completely, their steroid hormone receptors during malignant transformation. The reported incidence of ER and PR in endometrial carcinomas varies in several series from 35% to 70% [9,13,32,44,46], and our results are at the lower end of this range, sharing, in accordance with other studies [5,9,20], a frequent co-expression of both receptors. In most series, the lack of ER and PR expression by endometrial tumour cells has been a marker of aggressive tumour behaviour and, indeed, many investigators connected the loss of hormone dependence with nonendometrioid-type carcinomas [4,22] or with poorly differentiated endometrial tumours and advanced stage of disease [5,10,12,13,20,25,42].…”

Immunohistochemical study of androgen, estrogen and progesterone receptors in salivary gland tumors

“…cer. 3,4 However, in spite of the confirmed expression of sex hormone receptors in other types of cancer such as endometrial carcinomas, 15 carcinomas of the thyroid, 16 renal cell carcinomas, 17 malignant melanoma, 18 and meningiomas, 19 the efficacy of hormonal therapy in these tumors has not yet been established.…”