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Hormone steroid receptors, hormonal status and DNA content in patients with endometrial carcinoma after treatment with tamoxifen

The aim of this study was to find out whether tamoxifen has an effect on hormone steroid receptors, hormone concentration, DNA content and proliferative activity in endometrial cancer and to correlate the tamoxifen induced changes with clinical stage, tumor differentiation, depth of invasion and histologic type. Thirty postmenopausal women with endometrial carcinoma were treated with 30 mg of tamoxifen daily for 7-10 days after the curretage. Steroid hormone receptors (ER and PR), levels of FSH, LH, prolactin, estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, DHEAS, SHBG, and DNA ploidy and proliferative activity were determined before and after the therapy. The patients were also divided into favorable and unfavorable prognosis groups according to classical histological parameters. After the treatment, there was a net increase in the PR and SHBG, and a significant decrease in the ER. The increase in PR and decrease in ER occurred in the patient group with favorable prognosis regarding histologic type, degree of differentiation and clinical stage, but also in the unfavorable prognosis group regarding the depth of myometrial invasion. Statistically significant decrease in the FSH concentration was observed in the groups with favorable prognosis regarding histologic type, depth of myometrial invasion, and grade of differentiation. Concentration of SHBG was significantly increased in groups with favorable prognosis if histologic type and grade of differentiation were taken into account. We conclude that tamoxifen therapy can induce progesterone receptor synthesis even in tumors with low initial progesterone receptor levels, making such tumors potentially responsive to additional hormonal therapy with progesterone

Hormone steroid receptors; endometrial carcinoma; tamoxifen; flow cytometry

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