Distribution and Prognostic Significance of Estrogen Receptor α (ERα), Estrogen Receptor β (ERβ), and Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 (HER-2) in Thyroid Carcinoma

Abstract

Purpose. The primary aim of this study was to determine the incidence of estrogen receptor α (ERα), estrogen receptor β (ERβ), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2) expression in various subtypes of thyroid carcinoma (TC) of follicular origin and the secondary aim was to correlate the expression with various clinicopathologic prognostic factors. Methods. Immunohistochemistry analysis was performed on archival paraffin-embedded tissue sections (1991–2016). ERα, ERβ, and HER-2 expressions were correlated with clinicopathologic prognostic factors, disease recurrence, and overall survival (OS). Results. A total of 264 TC patients were included in the study. Incidences of ERα, ERβ, and HER-2 were 8.1 vs 16.3 vs 13.9% p=0.15, 26.6 vs 11.5 vs 36.1% p=0.002, and 12.9 vs 2.9 vs 0% p=0.003 in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC), and poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma (PDTC), respectively. Overall ERα had significant correlation with distant metastases (0.038) and in case of PDTC with multicentricity p=0.037. ERβ had significant correlation with lymph node metastases p=0.023 in FTC. HER-2 correlated with tumor size p=0.027 only on univariate analysis. OS did not correlate with expression of any receptor. Conclusion. ERα, ERβ, and HER-2 have differential expression and prognostic implications in different TC subtypes.