HORMONE-RECEPTOR IMMUNOREACTIVITY IN HEMANGIOBLASTOMAS AND CLEAR-CELLRENAL-CELL CARCINOMAS

Several primary central nervous system (CNS) neoplasms, including meni ngiomas, spinal cord ependymomas, and acoustic nerve schwannomas, expr ess hormone receptors, In the present study, we investigated hormone r eceptor immunoreactivity in hemangioblastomas on the basis of recent r eports of these tumors complicating pregnancy. We also evaluated cases of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) metastatic to the CNS, hypothesizing th at estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), or androgen rec eptor (AR) inmunoreactivity might help to distinguish between these hi stologically similar neoplasms, Immunohistochemical analysis for ERs, PRs, and ARs was performed on paraffin-embedded sections of 27 hemangi oblastomas, 12 primary clear cell RCCs, and 5 clear cell RCCs metastat ic to the CNS, All of the hemangioblastomas demonstrated PR immunoreac tivity, whereas 10 of 12 primary RCCs were negative. In addition, four of the five metastatic RCC were PR positive, All but one primary RCC were ER negative. AR immunoreactivity was seen in three hemangioblasto mas, five primary RCCs, and one metastatic RCC, Although hormone recep tor immunoreactivity was unable to distinguish between hemangioblastom a and clear cell RCC metastatic to the CNS, the identification of PR i mmunoreactivity in hemangioblastomas is a new finding that might have adjuvant therapy treatment implications.