Significance of immunohistochemical expression of estrogen receptors α and β in squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus

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 α and β (ERα and ERβ) in ESCC. Experimental Design: Expression of ERα and ERβ 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 ERα and 21 (28.8%) ESCCs had a positive nuclear expression of ERβ. Univariate analysis showed that both positive ERα expression (P = 0.0001) and negative ERβ expression (P = 0.026) were unfavorable prognostic indicators in ESCC. Moreover, multivariate analysis showed that ERα-positive/ERβ-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 ERα and ERβ were found to be observed in ESCC. Positive expression of ERα in addition to negative expression of ERβ proved to be an unfavorable independent prognostic indicator in ESCC.