title: Evaluation of estrogen receptor expression and its relationship with clinicopathologic findings in gastric cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The presence of estrogen receptor alpha has been reported in the cell and tissue levels in gastric cancer; however, its impact on patients' survival remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of estrogen receptor in gastric carcinoma as well as its relationship with the clinicopathologic findings of the patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was performed on 100 endoscopic biopsies of gastric adenocarcinoma for estrogen receptor expression using an immunohistochemical method, and their relationship with the clinicopathologic findings of the patients, such as age, gender, tumor site, size, grade, depth of tumor invasion (T), and lymphatic status (N), were analyzed using independent sample t-test and Pearson Chi-square test. A P < 0.05 was considered significant in all analyses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Using an immunohistochemical method on endoscopic biopsies of 74 males and 26 females with the mean age of 63 years, estrogen receptor was found to be positive in 41% of patients. No significant difference was found between estrogen receptor expression and other clinicopathologic findings (P = 0.75). There was a significant difference between estrogen receptor (+) and estrogen receptor (-) groups in nodal involvement (P = 0.001). The estrogen receptor (+) patients had more number of lymph nodes involved.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study showed that lymph node involvement has a significant relationship with estrogen receptor expression. However, no significant relationship was found between estrogen receptor expression and other clinicopathologic findings such as age, gender, tumor site in stomach, tumor size, tumor grade, and T-stage.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Research Center, Guilan University of Medical Science (GUMS), Guilan, Iran.
authors.forename: Hamid
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Saeidi
authors.affiliation: Cancer Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (IUMS), Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Reza Ghavam
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Nasiri
authors.affiliation: Cancer Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (IUMS), Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Soodabeh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shahidsales
authors.affiliation: Cancer Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (IUMS), Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Ali Taghizadeh
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Kermani
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiotherapy and Oncology, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (IUMS), Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Simin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hematti
authors.affiliation: Cancer Research Center, Guilan University of Medical Science (GUMS), Guilan, Iran.
authors.forename: Seyedeh Setareh
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Roodbari
authors.affiliation: General Physicians, Cancer Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (MUMS), Mashhad, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Hossein Mottaghi
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Shahri
authors.affiliation: Cancer Research Center, Guilan University of Medical Science (GUMS), Guilan, Iran.
authors.forename: Sepideh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chagharvand
keywords: Clinicopathologic findings; estrogen receptor; gastric cancer; immunohistochemical technique