title: Estrogen receptor alpha expression in ovarian cancer predicts longer overall survival.
abstract: Estrogen as a potential factor of ovarian carcinogenesis, acts via two nuclear receptors, estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) and estrogen receptor beta (ERβ), but the cellular signal pathways involved are not completely clear so far. In this study we have described the expression of ERα, detected by immunocytochemistry in 11 ovarian carcinoma cell lines and by immunohistochemistry in 43 Federation Internationale des Gyneacologistes et Obstetristes stage III ovarian carcinoma specimens prepared before and after treatment with cisplatin-based schemes. For cisplatin resistance is a major obstacle in the treatment of ovarian carcinoma, analysis of cisplatin sensitivity in 11 ovarian carcinoma cell line was also performed. The strong nuclear ERα expression was only shown in the single A2780P cell line. Expression of ERα in tissue specimens did not reveal any correlations between histopathological parameters (histologic type and grading). We demonstrated a significant association with ERα expression in specimens from primary laparotomies (PL) and cause-specific survival. In the cases terminated by death of the patient, overall immunoreactivity score of ERα expression at PL was significantly lower than in surviving patients. In addition, Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed significantly shorter overall survival time and progression-free time in cases with lower immunoreactivity score of ERα expression at PL. Our findings support the hypothesis that aberrant hormone activity, by way of altered receptor expression, might be an important factor in the malignant transformation of ovarian cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathomorphology, Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, Poland. ahalon2@gmail.com
authors.forename: Agnieszka
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Halon
authors.forename: Verena
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Materna
authors.forename: Malgorzata
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Drag-Zalesinska
authors.forename: Ewa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nowak-Markwitz
authors.forename: Tserenchunt
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gansukh
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Donizy
authors.forename: Marek
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Spaczynski
authors.forename: Maciej
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zabel
authors.forename: Manfred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dietel
authors.forename: Hermann
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lage
authors.forename: Pawel
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Surowiak
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D018284:Cystadenocarcinoma, Serous / Q000378:metabolism / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy; D016889:Endometrial Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy; D047628:Estrogen Receptor alpha / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D008875:Middle Aged; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C506487:ESR1 protein, human; D047628:Estrogen Receptor alpha