Defining prognostic significant threshold values of hormone receptor expression in endometrial cancer

Introduction The hormone-dependent carcinogenesis of endometrioid endometrial cancers is well known. Nevertheless, there are no threshold values concerning the prognostic impact of estrogen (ER) or progesterone receptor (PR) expression.

Materials and methods Expression analysis of estrogen and progesterone receptor in 142 endometrial cancer patients was performed by immunohistochemistry. Staining intensity of tumor cells was computerized assessed semi-quantitatively, and results were correlated with clinicopathological characteristics and survival.

Results 122 and 118 out of 142 patients were classified to be ER or PR positive, respectively (≥ 1 % staining intensity index). We found that patients with a relatively strong expression of the estrogen receptor (≥ 75. percentile staining intensity) show a significantly better overall survival and disease-free survival (p = 0.023 and p = 0.013, respectively). We identified a threshold for PR positivity to be ≥ 25. percentile staining intensity. These patients had a significantly better overall survival and disease-free survival (p = 0.025 and p = < 0.001, respectively).

Furthermore, ER and PR positivity as defined was significantly associated to the FIGO stage (p = 0.019 and p = 0.005, respectively), and tumor’s grading (p = 0.002 and p < 0.001, respectively). ER negative tumors were significantly more often p53 aberrant (p = 0.009) and mismatch repair deficient (p = 0.005).

Conclusion We conclude that prognostic significant thresholds of ER and PR expression in endometrial cancers may be identified as the 75 and 25 percentile, respectively. These findings might contribute to an individual and accurate prognosis for endometrial cancer patients.

Publikationsverlauf

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
11. Oktober 2022