Evaluation of Estrogen and Progesterone Receptors in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma and their Relationship with Survival

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor of General Surgery, Baghiatollah Medical Sciences University, Baghiatollah Hospital, Tehran, Iran

2 Assistant Professor of Radiotherapy and Oncology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Shohadaye Tajrish Hospital, Tehran, Iran

3 General Practitioner, Methodologist and Research Advisor, Tehran, Iran

Abstract
Introduction & Objective: The incidence of esophageal cancer is 3 times higher in men than in women and its prognosis is better for women than men. Furthermore, experimental animal models investigations about sex hormone receptors and tumoral growth, supports possible implication of sex hormones in esophageal cancers. This study aimed to evaluate estrogen and progesterone receptors in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and their relation with patients’ survival. Materials & Methods: In this study 100 cases of non-metastatic esophageal carcinoma (50 males & 50 females), which underwent radical esophagectomy in Shohadaye Tajrish, Taleghani, Imam Khomeini and Baghiyatallah hospitals, included. Receptors identified by Labeled Strep Avidin Biotin (LSAB) method and relationship between presence of receptors and sex, tumor stage, tumor location and patients survival evaluated. Data analysis performed using chi-square, t-test, Fisher’s exact test and survival analyzed with Kaplan-Meier and log rank tests. P-values <0.05 considered statistically significant. Results: Estrogen receptors (ERs) found in none of cases and progestron receptors (PRs) were positive in 14% of cases. In PR positive cases proportion of females was 25% higher comparing to PR negative cases (P=0.08). Age of PR positive patients ranged from 40-79 years with average of 54.7±12.1 years and age of PR negative patients ranged from 32-85 with average of 59.4±11.8 years (P=0.1). There were no significant difference in sex, tumor location, lymph node involvement, depth of invasion, and tumor grade between PR positive and PR negative cases (P>0.05). Average survival time of PR positive cases was 15.8 months and in PR negatives was 10.3 months (P=0.68). Conclusions: There was no estrogen positive case in this study and progesterone receptors were positive in few cases. There were no statistically significant relation between prognosis of patients and tumor specifications and presence of progesterone receptors in this study but further larger studies are suggested in this regard.

Keywords