Hormonal receptors in lung adenocarcinoma: expression and difference in outcome by sex

BACKGROUND: Lung cancer seems to have different epidemiological, biomolecular and clinical characteristics in females than in males, with a better prognosis for women. The aim of the study is to determine gender differences in lung adenocarcinoma in terms of androgen (AR), estrogen (ER)α and progesterone (PgR) receptors expression and their impact on outcome. RESULTS: Overall survival was significantly better in ERα and in PgR positive lung adenocarcinoma patients (median survival 45 vs. 19 months). Eight out of 62 patients showed positive expression of nuclear (n) AR and 18 of cytoplasmic (c) AR with a significantly better survival (49 vs. 19 and 45 vs. 19 months, respectively). There was a significant difference in survival between patients with vs. without c-AR expression (30 vs. 17 months). Finally, in the subgroup of women, median survival was greater in positive expression of c-AR than for women with negative c-AR (45 vs. 21 months). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted an analysis on a cohort of 62 patients with advanced NSCLC treated at our institution. We investigated the immunohistochemical expression of n/c AR, ERα and PgR in 62 NSCLC and we correlated it with patients' clinic-pathologic characteristics and with prognosis. CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed that the positive expression of one hormonal receptor could represent a prognostic factor. Furthermore our study suggests that AR should become object of close examination in a larger series of lung adenocarcinoma patients, also for selection of the patients with best prognosis that can perform more chemotherapy lines.