Estrogen and progesterone receptors in non-small cell lung cancer in 248 consecutive patients who underwent surgical resection

Context-Different authors have reported estrogen receptor (ER) expression b etween 0% and 96.8% and progesterone receptor (PR) expression between 21.8% and 34.7%. Objective.-To examine the discrepancies in the literature regarding the exp ression of ERs and PRs in non-small cell lung cancer. Design.-Retrospective analysis. Setting.-A referral tertiary care center. Patients.-We reviewed 248 consecutive cases of stage I and II non-small cel l lung cancers. Methods and Results.-Sections of formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tumor tissue were stained with ER and PR monoclonal antibodies using the avidin- biotin complex detection system with antigen retrieval. Men represented 66. 1% of the patients, and women represented 33.9%. Large cell (undifferentiat ed) carcinoma constituted 10.4% of the entire population; squamous cell car cinoma, 39.1%; adenocarcinoma, 33.0%; and bronchoalveolar carcinoma, 17.3%. Patients with stage I disease represented 77.0% of the population. In this patient population, we found no nuclear or cytoplasmic expression of eithe r ERs or PRs (95% confidence interval, 0%-1.2%). Conclusions.-The absence of expression of ERs and PRs differs from previous articles, which use a variety of techniques, impairing a meaningful compar ison of data. In addition, the presence of ER and PR expression in a lung c arcinoma is supportive of a nonpulmonary primary tumor metastatic to the lu ng. The absence of their expression in nonsmall cell lung cancer does not s upport a role of these transcription factors in initiating and maintaining this neoplastic process.