Evaluating Estradiol Levels in Male Patients with Colorectal Carcinoma

Abstract

Background: Globally more than 1 million people suffer from colorectal cancer (CRC) per annum, resulting in about 0.5 million deaths. The role of estrogen in CRC is being researched with great interest; expression of estrogen receptors (alfa and beta) is being explored. Aims and Objective: Our objective was to compare the serum estradiol levels in diagnosed male patients of CRC, with agematched controls; and to study the estradiol levels across the different stages of CRC. Setting and design: A cross-sectional study was conducted from January, 2012 to March, 2013 at a tertiary care hospital in north India. Materials and Methods: Fifty one male preoperative CRC patients were enrolled along with 50 age-matched male controls. Ethical approval and informed written consent from each participant were duly obtained. CRC patients were staged as per TNM (TTumour, N- Node, M- Metastasis; I, II, III and IV) criteria. Serum estradiol level was measured by Chemiimmunofluroscence method (normal = 11.6 - 41.2 pg/ml). Statistical analysis used: We used student’s t test and ANOVA (analysis of variance) to analyse the data (SPSS version 17.0, SPSS, Inc., Chicago, Illinois) Result :The mean serum estradiol level among CRC patients (43.4, sd=27.1) was significantly more than that among controls (mean=24.7, sd=17.5), (p<0.0001). Across the four TNM stages of CRC patients, mean estradiol level was highest in Stage II (55.9, sd=15.5); followed by Stages III (44.1, sd=24.9), IV (36.3, sd=30.0) and I (26.4, sd=38.8). However, significant difference was obtained only between Stages I and II. Conclusion: Our study revealed increased levels of serum estradiol in Indian male CRC patients. Further research is warranted to corroborate this finding, and to understand the role of estradiol across different TNM stages of CRC.

Keywords

• biomarker
• colorectal
• estrogen