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Glucocorticoid receptor in cervical cancer: an immunhistochemical analysis

  • Gynecologic Oncology
  • Published:
Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Cervical cancer is one of the most frequent cancers in women worldwide. In most of all cases, a persistent HPV infection is the leading cause. HPV-specific sequences are able to bind glucocorticoid receptor (GR). Dexamethasone can increase the activity of early promoters in HPV16 and HPV18 interfering in transcription control of viral oncogenes. The aim of our study was to evaluate glucocorticoid receptor as transcriptional factor in its active form in the nucleus of in cervical cancer cells and to correlate the results with clinical patient specific parameters.

Methods

A total of 250 paraffin-embedded cervical cancer samples obtained from patients having undergone surgery for cervical cancer were used for the study. The expression of GR was immunhistochemical examined and evaluated by a semi-quantitative scoring. SPSS software was used for the statistical evaluation of staining results and survival analysis of patients with cervical cancer.

Results

GR is frequently expressed in cervical carcinoma tissue in favor of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). An enhanced expression is correlated with rather small clinical stages. The expression of the GR is correlated with better overall survival and progression-free survival.

Conclusions

The glucocorticoid receptor is frequently expressed in cervical carcinoma tissue in favor of squamous cell carcinoma. An enhanced expression is correlated with rather small clinical stages. The expression of the analyzed receptor is correlated with better overall survival. Further studies are needed to determine useful treatment targets for glucocorticoid receptor manipulation.

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Funding

The study was supported by the “Heuer Stiftung” for Bernd P. Kost. The authors would like to thank Prof. Dr. med. Jutta Engel, M.P.H. and Max Wiedemann (The Munich Cancer Registry of the Tumorzentrum München [TZM—Munich Tumor Center]) for the follow-up data.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, LMU Munich, University Hospital, Marchioninistrasse 15, 81377, Munich, Germany

    Bernd Peter Kost, Susanne Beyer, Lennard Schröder, Junyan Zhou, Christina Kuhn, Sandra Schulze, Simone Hofmann, Sven Mahner, Udo Jeschke & Helene Heidegger

  2. Klinikum Der Universität München, Pathologisches Institut, Munich, Germany

    Doris Mayr

Authors
  1. Bernd Peter Kost
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  2. Susanne Beyer
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  3. Lennard Schröder
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  4. Junyan Zhou
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  5. Doris Mayr
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  6. Christina Kuhn
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  7. Sandra Schulze
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  8. Simone Hofmann
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  9. Sven Mahner
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  10. Udo Jeschke
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  11. Helene Heidegger
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Contributions

BPK: project development, data collection. SB: experiments, manuscript writing. LS: data collection, manuscript editing. JZ: data analyses. DM: supervision, data analyses. CK: experiments, methodology. SS: experiments, methodology. SH: experiments, methodology. SM: data analyses, supervision, funding. UJ: supervision. HH: manuscript edition, data analyses

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Udo Jeschke.

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Conflict of interest

All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Informed consent

The study was approved by the ethics committee of the Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich (reference number 259-16). Patient data were anonymized.

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Kost, B.P., Beyer, S., Schröder, L. et al. Glucocorticoid receptor in cervical cancer: an immunhistochemical analysis. Arch Gynecol Obstet 299, 203–209 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-018-4928-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-018-4928-9

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