Lmv. Roig et al., EFFECTS OF SHORT-TERM TAMOXIFEN ADMINISTRATION IN PATIENTS WITH INVASIVE CERVICAL-CARCINOMA, Anticancer research, 13(6B), 1993, pp. 2457-2463
Cervical cancel is not considered a hormone-responsive tumor in spite
of the presence of estrogen receptors (ER) and progesterone receptors
(PgR) in some of them. Endocrine treatments have not achieved clinical
responses, however; tamoxifen has been reported to induce PgR and to
inhibit cell growth of many cervical carcinoma cell lines. In this stu
dy We investigated whether tamoxifen administration affects the histop
athological characteristics of cervical cancer and the expression of E
R, PgR, HER-2/neu and p53 protein. Nineteen patients with invasive cer
vical cancer free of previous treatments wets studied. The triphenylet
hylene antiestrogen tamoxifen was given orally during 10 days (20 or 4
0 mg/day). Pre- and post-tamoxifen biopsies were evaluated using slide
s stained with hematoxylin and eosin and immunostained (ER, PgR, HER-2
/neu, p53, PCNA, keratin, heat shock protein 27,000 daltons). Estrogen
receptors were present in 37% and PgR in 16% of the biopsies from unt
reated patients. Only one case that was PgR-negative before tamoxifen
administration showed weak PgR-positivity following antiestrogen admin
istration. No obvious changes were observed in ER, HER-2/neu and p53 p
roteins. A statistically significant decrease in the number of mitotic
figures was obtained in 16% (3/19) of the post-tamoxifen biopsies and
two of them showed higher differentiation. The results showed that ta
moxifen did not induce changes in estrogen-regulated proteins in cervi
cal cancer. However, the data showed that certain cervical carcinomas
had changes in their proliferation and differentiation levels followin
g tamoxifen administration. These findings suggest that tamoxifen may
affect some cervical cancel tissues by a hormone-independent mechanism
(s).