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Significance of Immunohistochemical Expression of Estrogen Receptors and ß in Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Esophagus

Authors' Affiliation: Second Department of Surgery, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Kitakyushu, Japan

Requests for reprints: Tadahiro Nozoe, Second Department of Surgery, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, 1-1, Iseigaoka, Yahata-NishiWard, Kitakyushu 807-0855, Japan. Phone: 81-093-691-7442; Fax: 81-093-692-4004; E-mail: ntvb{at}med.uoeh-u.ac.jp.

Purpose: Possible significance of sex hormone estrogen as an antitumor therapeutic arm toward esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) cells has been suggested. The aim of the current study was to clarify the clinicopathologic significance of an immunohistochemical expression of estrogen receptors and ß (ER and ERß) in ESCC.

Experimental Design: Expression of ER and ERß were examined using an immunohistochemical methods in 73 paraffin-embedded sections collected from patients with ESCC who had been subjected to esophageal resection and digestive reconstruction without any preoperative induction therapy.

Results: Forty-seven (64.4%) ESCCs had a positive cytoplasmic expression of ER and 21 (28.8%) ESCCs had a positive nuclear expression of ERß. Univariate analysis showed that both positive ER expression (P = 0.0001) and negative ERß expression (P = 0.026) were unfavorable prognostic indicators in ESCC. Moreover, multivariate analysis showed that ER-positive/ERß-negative expression (P = 0.003) and progression of tumor stage (P = 0.014) were found to be independent unfavorable prognostic indicators in ESCCs.

Conclusions: Immunohistochemical expression of ER and ERß were found to be observed in ESCC. Positive expression of ER in addition to negative expression of ERß proved to be an unfavorable independent prognostic indicator in ESCC.