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The expression and clinical significance of ERβ/ERα in ovarian cancer: can we predict the effectiveness of platinum plus taxane therapy?

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Abstract

Summary

Estrogens play an extremely important role in regulating the proliferation of ovarian cancer. The estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) stimulates cell growth, whereas ERβ can be attributed to tumor suppressors. The study aims to assess the relationship between the expression of estrogen receptors in tumors and the efficacy of front-line platinum plus taxane chemotherapy in ovarian cancer patients.

Materials and methods

ERα and ERβ tumor expression was evaluated quantitatively by flow cytometry in a narrowly defined group (31 patients): stage III high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC), suboptimal surgical cytoreduction, front-line platinum plus taxane chemotherapy (front-line, six cycles).

Results

The median of progression-free survival (PFS) was 2 times greater (18 vs 8 months, p = 0.04) and the recurrence risk (HR) was 2.2 times (95 % CI: 1.1–6.2, p = 0.04) lower in the group with high (in more than 40% of the cells) vs low level of ERβ tumor expression. The statistically significant difference between PFS in the groups with high vs low tumor ERα expression was not revealed.

Conclusion

A high level of ERβ and not ERα expression can predict the efficacy of front-line platinum plus taxane chemotherapy in stage III HGSOC patients. The status of estrogen receptor beta can be considered as one of the possible predictors for evaluating the effectiveness of ovarian cancer therapy.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, agreement № 075-15-2021-1060.

Funding

The Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (agreement № 075-15-2021-1060).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Group of Molecular Tumor Markers, N.N. Blokhin National Medical Research Center of Oncology of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russian Federation

    Tatiana A. Bogush & Anna A. Basharina

  2. Department of Oncology, N.V. Sklifosovsky Institute of Clinical Medicine, I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation (Sechenov University), Moscow, Russian Federation

    Elena A. Bogush & Mikhail M. Davydov

  3. Laboratory of Oncoproteomics, N.N. Blokhin National Medical Research Center of Oncology of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russian Federation

    Alexander M. Scherbakov

  4. Laboratory of Transgenic Drugs, N.N. Blokhin National Medical Research Center of Oncology of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russian Federation

    Vyacheslav S. Kosorukov

Authors
  1. Tatiana A. Bogush
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  2. Anna A. Basharina
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  3. Elena A. Bogush
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  4. Alexander M. Scherbakov
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  5. Mikhail M. Davydov
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  6. Vyacheslav S. Kosorukov
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Contributions

T Bogush contributed the idea and design of the study. A Basharina conducted experiments and statistical analysis. T Bogush, A Basharina, E Bogush and A Scherbakov analyzed the results. T Bogush, A Basharina, E Bogush and V Kosorukov wrote and edited the manuscript. E Bogush, M Davydov were responsible for biological material collection. E Bogush, M Davydov created database about clinical and morphological characteristics. V Kosorukov was a supervisor of the research. All authors contributed to manuscript revision, read and approved the submitted version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alexander M. Scherbakov.

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Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study was approved by the Ethical Committee of N.N. Blokhin National Medical Research Center of Oncology, Moscow, Russian Federation. All patients have given written informed consent under the Declaration of Helsinki.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Clinical significance

• Estrogen receptors may be predictive markers not only for hormone therapy but also for platinum-based chemotherapy.

• High-precision flow cytometry made it possible to reveal ERβ clinical relevance: high level of tumor ERβ but not ERα predicts the front-line platinum plus taxane chemotherapy efficacy in a narrowly-defined cohort of patients with stage III high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma, suboptimal surgical cytoreduction and six cycles of the front-line platinum plus taxane chemotherapy.

• Further investigation should be carried out in a large cohort of patients with varied clinical features of ovarian cancer to study the universality of ERβ as a predictor marker.

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Bogush, T.A., Basharina, A.A., Bogush, E.A. et al. The expression and clinical significance of ERβ/ERα in ovarian cancer: can we predict the effectiveness of platinum plus taxane therapy?. Ir J Med Sci 191, 2047–2053 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-021-02842-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-021-02842-6

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