AN IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL STUDY OF PROGESTERONE-RECEPTOR IN THYROIDAL HURTHLE CELLS TUMORS

Estrogen (ER) and progesterone (PgR) receptors are commonly represente d on normal and neoplastic thyroid tissues, while a few data are avail able about their expression in Hurthle cells tumors. Seventeen patient s who underwent thyroidectomy for a neoplasia that showed oxyphilic el ements were studied by an immunohistochemical method and the presence of PgR in the 30% of them, was demonstrated, while no ER expression co uld be found. We tried, therefore, to establish a correlation between these proteins and age, sex or indexes of the supposed estro-progestin ic concentration of our patients. None of these factors resulted signi ficantly related to the receptors expression. Since PgR are expressed in the oxyphilic cells neoplasms, further studies on both ER, and PgR are needed in order to point out their possible biological importance.