Elsevier

Human Pathology

Volume 32, Issue 1, January 2001, Pages 113-118
Human Pathology

Original Contributions
Estrogen receptor beta expression in invasive breast cancer*

Presented in part at the 89th Annual Meeting of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, New Orleans, LA, March 25-31, 2000.
https://doi.org/10.1053/hupa.2001.21506Get rights and content

Abstract

The aim of this work was to determine the extent of estrogen receptor beta (ER-β) expression in invasive breast cancer (BrCA) and whether ER-β expression is correlated with response to adjuvant hormonal therapy with tamoxifen (AHTT). Immunohistochemical staining (IHC) for estrogen receptor alpha (ER-α) and ER-β was performed on sections of formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissue from 47 unselected invasive breast carcinomas (BrCA). IHC for ER-β was also performed on sections of BrCA from 118 women who were treated with mastectomy and AHTT. Survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test. Of the 47 unselected BrCA, 17 (36%) were negative for ER-α and of these, 8 (47% of ER-α negative cases and 17% of all 47 patients) were ER-β positive. Five of the 8 ER-α negative and ER-β positive cases were positive for ER biochemically. There was no correlation between ER-β positivity and overall survival in the unselected group. By contrast, in the group of women treated with AHTT, expression of ER-β in more than 10% of cancer cells was associated with better survival (P =.0077), even in women with node-negative BrCA (P =.0069). In conclusion, our results show that a significant number of women with BrCA are positive for ER-β only, and may be determined to be ER-negative when currently available IHC is used. ER-β status is a significant predictor of response to AHTT in women with BrCA. Larger studies with multivariate analysis are needed to confirm these findings. HUM PATHOL 32:113-118. Copyright © 2001 by W.B. Saunders Company

Section snippets

Patients

The study population consisted of two groups. The first was an unselected group of 47 women with invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast (BrCA) who were treated with mastectomy and axillary node dissection at The Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas in the years 1984 and 1985. Only 4 of these patients received adjuvant hormonal therapy with tamoxifen (AHHT). The second was a group of 118 women with BrCA, all of whom were treated with mastectomy and axillary node dissection and AHTT at The

Results

Western blot analysis showed that the anti-ER-β antibody MYEB recognizes the recombinant human ER-β (Fig 1, lane 4) and a faint band of approximately 55 kd in lysate of human breast carcinoma cell line MCF7 (Fig 1, lane 3), which is known to express ER-β mRNA and protein,29, 30, 31 and in BrCA tissue samples (Fig 1, lanes 5-8).

. Western blot detection of ER-β. Lanes 1 and 4 contained recombinant human ER-β, 2 the cell line HuT 78, 3 the cell line MCF7, and 5-8 human breast cancer tissues. Lane 1

Discussion

The antibody MYEB recognized the human recombinant ER-β in western blot experiments and a faint band of similar molecular weight in the control cell line MCF7 and in human breast cancer tissues. However, a stronger band of slightly lower molecular weight (approximately 50 kd) was detected in breast cancer tissues and in MCF7. This band is most likely an ER-β isoform with lower molecular weight than ER-β represented by the recombinant protein. Unfortunately, our antibody (MYEB) and all

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    *

    Supported by The Methodist Hospital Foundation.

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    Copyright © 2001 W.B. Saunders Company. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.