Vitamin D receptor expression in hydatidiform mole and gestational trophoblastic neoplasia: A cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVE: Vitamin D receptor (VDR) exerts anti-cancer properties in a variety of cancers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression of VDR in patients with hydatidiform mole (HM) and gestational trophoblastic neoplasia (GTN). METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study involved 61 specimens of HM (n = 37, 60.7%) and GTN (n = 24, 39.3%) was collected from the biopsy. An immunohistochemistry was used to asses the VDR expression. Student's t-test and Mann–Whitney test were used to compare the expression of VDR, including VDR staining intensity, VDR distribution, and histoscore, between HM and GTN tissue specimens. RESULTS: No significant differences in age and parity were noted between patients with HM or GTN (p > 0.05). The VDR staining intensity of GTN tissue specimens was significantly lower than that of HM tissue specimens (2.3 ± 0.8 vs. 2.8 ± 0.5, p = 0.008). In addition, the histoscore for GTN tissues was significantly lower than that for HM tissues (7.3 ± 3.2 vs. 9.4 ± 28, p = 0.016). However, no significant differences in VDR distribution between GTN and HM tissues were observed (3.3 ± 0.8 vs. 3.3 ± 1.0, p = 0.525). CONCLUSION: Low VDR expression is associated with GTN, whereas high VDR expression is associated with HM, suggesting that the expression of VDR may regulate the severity of gestational trophoblastic disease.