Abstract:

Background and purpose: The involvement of estrogen signaling in lung cancer is controversial. But the findings showed that ERβ might play an important role in neoplastic lung biology. Several studies have evaluated expression of ERβ in both normal and neoplastic human lung tissues with variable conclusions. We aimed to evaluate the expressive of estrogen receptors (ER) α, β in non-smoking non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and investigate the relationships between the survival and expressions of ERα, β. Methods: Immunohistochemical assay was used to detect the expression ERα and ERβ in 144 NSCLC patients, and analyzed the expressions status of ERα, β and survival. Results: The positive rate of ERα was 7.6%, only in adenocarcinoma cancer. The positive rate of ERβwas 52.1%, and the expressions of stage Ⅰ and Ⅱ was significantly higher than that of stage Ⅲ and Ⅳ (P=0.020). The median survival time (MST) of ERβ positive expression was better than that of negative expression (43 months vs 38 months, P=0.028). The MST of ERβ positive expression of female patients was better than that of negative expression (45 months vs 37 months, P=0.033). The MST of ERβ positive expression of adenocarcinoma were 46 months and better than negative 38 months (P=0.021). Conclusion: The expression of ERβ was significantly higher in early-stage non- smoking NSCLC. It indicated that the positive expression of ERβ was related to the better MST, especially in female adenocarcinoma patients.

Key words: Non-smoking, NSCLC, Estrogen receptor