The prognostic significance of estrogen receptor β in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the fifth most common cancer in the world. Although multimodal and targeted therapy is now used in therapeutic procedures, the survival of patients with HNSCC has remained unchanged over the last 30 years. A number of studies have demonstrated that the increased expression of intranuclear ERβ in breast, lung and colon cancer is a favorable prognostic marker associated with higher survival rates. However, the clinical significance of sex hormone receptors in HNSCC remains unclear. The current study aimed to assess the expression of ERβ in HNSCC immunohistochemically and investigate any possible association between ERβ expression, and clinical and histopathological factors, disease recurrence and patient survival. The present study included 174 patients (165 males and 9 females) with a median age of 60.8 years (range, 39–79) with HNSCC who were primary surgically treated between January 2000 and December 2006. Immunohistochemical reactions for ERβ demonstrated that 73 patients (42%) exhibited positive ERβ expression. Distribution of ERβ status among different head and neck subsites indicated that >40% of all negative cases were located in laryngeal primaries, while incidence of other sublocalization within positive cases was similar and comparable (P=0.04). Furthermore, a correlation was observed between ERβ immunopositivity and the survival of patients, with respect to the primary tumor site. Patients with ERβ positive oropharyngeal cancer had a survival rate of 35.3% at 5-years compared with 25% for patients with negative expression. However, ERβ status was not significantly correlated with any other clinical or histopathological parameter. After an average follow-up time of 38.5 months (range, 3–60 months), 54 patients (31.1%) had succumbed to disease recurrence while 50 (28.7%) succumbed to other causes. In conclusion, ERβ positivity indicates improved survival of patients with oropharyngeal cancer. Further research is required in order to implement novel therapeutic strategies.

Loss of Estrogen Receptors is Associated with Increased Tumor Aggression in Laryngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

“…The proportion of ERα positive breast cancer incidence relative to the total diagnoses is similar for patients in the United States and Northern Israel 86,87 ; however, our data suggest that ERβ positive cancer incidence may be more regionally localized. Other studies have reported high variability of ERβ expression in laryngeal cancer samples, similar to the trends we observed in our samples 88 . It is important to note that although western blots were conducted in a centralized lab, our samples were originally fixed and processed at two different institutions, which could have caused "batch processing effects" that could also account for the regional variation we observed in our samples.…”

Hormone factors play a favorable role in female head and neck cancer risk

“…The paucity of literature on female HNCs is due to low female case numbers available at each individual institution, low female HNC incidence, and a lack of standardized reproductive or hormone use data collection on HNC patients in general . However, estrogen hormone receptors have been shown to be functional in HNC cell lines, expressed depending on hormone ligand stimulation , and, recently, correlated with HNC survival status . However, the role of hormones in head and neck carcinogenesis in a human model remains unclear.…”

Mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathway in oral cancer (Review)

“…Head and neck malignant carcinoma is a commonly diagnosed cancer and its incidence has risen over the past decade (1). Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is an important oral malignancy, accounting for >90% of head and neck malignant carcinoma cases (2).…”