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Erschienen in:
01.03.2010 | Gynecologic oncology
Prognostic significance of estrogen receptor alpha and beta expression in human serous carcinomas of the ovary
Erschienen in: Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics | Ausgabe 3/2010
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Background
Ovarian cancer is a gynecologic cancer with a high mortality rate. This shows the need of effective screening methods and reliable cancer markers for ovarian cancer staging and appropriate effective cancer treatment.
Methods
Expression of estrogen receptor α and β was studied by immunhistochemical analysis of 100 ovarian cancer tissue samples.
Results
In this study on 100 serous ovarian cancer tissue samples from patients with defined clinicopathologic features, a significant association of ER-α expression with ovarian cancer grading (p = 0.004), progression-free survival (p = 0.007), and cause-specific survival (p = 0.001) was demonstrated. Expression of ER-β was found to be associated with the metastatic lymph node status (p = 0.006).
Conclusion
Immunohistochemical analysis of ER might be used as an easy, simple and highly efficient marker to identify high-risk patients and may aid in the selection of patients for a more aggressive adjuvant therapy. Furthermore, patients that show a positive ER-α immunostaining can be selected for a specific anti-hormonal therapy, as already performed for breast cancer patients.