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. 2016 Dec;5(4):224-230.
doi: 10.1159/000452488. Epub 2016 Nov 24.

Immunohistochemical Expression of Estrogen Receptor-α and Progesterone Receptor in Patients with Papillary Thyroid Cancer

Giacomo Sturniolo  1 , Carles Zafon  2 , Mariacarla Moleti  3 , Josep Castellví  4 , Francesco Vermiglio  3 , Jordi Mesa  2
Affiliations

Immunohistochemical Expression of Estrogen Receptor-α and Progesterone Receptor in Patients with Papillary Thyroid Cancer

Giacomo Sturniolo et al. Eur Thyroid J. 2016 Dec.

Abstract

Background: Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) prevalence is nearly 3 times higher in females than in males. This gender difference suggests that growth and progression of PTC might be influenced by female sex hormones.

Objectives: To analyze the expression of both estrogen receptor (ER)-α and progesterone receptor (PR) by immunohistochemistry in 203 PTC patients.

Methods: ER-α and PR expression was evaluated in paraffin-embedded tumor tissue samples of 45 males and 158 females followed up for 7.2 ± 3.7 years.

Results: ER-α was expressed in 52 (25.6%) patients (41 females and 11 males) and PR in 94 (46.3%) patients (75 females and 19 males). ER-α and PR were coexpressed in 31 (15.3%) patients (27 females and 4 males). ER-α expression correlated significantly with tumor size in the whole sample (ER-α positive 22.8 ± 11.8 mm vs. ER-α negative 15.1 ± 12.4 mm; p = 0.02) and in the subgroup of women (ER-α positive 18.8 ± 12.8 mm vs. ER-α negative 14.9 ± 12.3 mm; p = 0.048). In addition, ER-α expression significantly correlated with remission of the disease. In fact, of the 192 patients followed up, 50/153 (32.7%) disease-free patients were ER-α positive, in contrast to only 3/39 (7.7%) with evidence of disease persistence/recurrence (χ2 = 8.5, p = 0.0036). PR expression was not associated with any of the parameters analyzed.

Conclusions: The present study confirmed recent data indicating that ER-α and PR expression is a common finding in thyroid tumor tissue. However, in contrast to previous reports, we observed an association between ER-α expression and a more favorable outcome in PTC patients.

Keywords: Estrogen receptor; Progesterone receptor; Sexual hormone receptors; Thyroid cancer.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Immnunohistochemical ER-α (a-c) and PR (d-f). The intensity of expression (brown color) progressively increases from the right to the left panel.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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