Correlations of ERα,PR and E-cadherin in ovarian tumors

Ojbective: To detect the expression and correlations among estrogen receptor alpha（ERα）,progesterone receptor（PR） and E-cadherin in ovarian tumor subtypes.Methods: Immunohistochemical staining was used to examine the expression of ERα,PR,E-cadherin in 5 cases of serous borderline cancer,46 cases of serous adenocarcinoma,6 cases of endometriod adenocarcinoma,5 cases of clear cell adenocarcinoma and 10 cases of other subtypes,statistical methods were used to analyze the relationship among all indexes.Results: （1） There were statistically significant differences in ERα and PR expression between serous adenocarcinoma and clear cell adenocarcinoma（P＜0.05）;（2） In serous adenocarcinoma,the expression of E-cadherin was correlated to clinical stage（P＜0.05）;（3） In malignant ovarian cancers,the positive rate of ERα did not make difference no matter the samples were in early stage or advanced stage,pathological differentiation,age,and presence or absence of lymphatic metastasis,the same to PR and E-cadherin.（4） In serous ovarian cancer,no correlations were found among ERα,PR,E-cadherin.Conclusion: ERα,PR can be biological characteristics that distinguish clear cell adenocarcinoma and serous adenocarcinoma;E-cadherin may play an important role in the procession of ovary transferring to malignant cancer and can be a good index for clinical diagnosis and prognosis.