Estrogen receptor-β expression in human laryngeal carcinoma: correlation with the expression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition specific biomarkers

Laryngeal carcinoma is a malignancy of the respiratory tract with a significantly higher male to female ratio, suggesting involvement of gender-depended factors in the pathogenesis. Estrogen influences the pathological processes of hormone-dependent cancers, such as breast, prostate and ovarian cancers, through its receptors, estrogen receptor-α (ER-a) and -ss (ER-ss). While ER-α promotes cell proliferation, recent studies indicate that ER-β is protective against carcinoma progression into an invasive state. However, it is unclear whether ER-β plays a role in laryngeal cancer. In the present study we examined the expression of ER-ss in 80 invasive human squamous laryngeal carcinomas by immunohistochemistry and correlated ER-β expression with markers of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). ER-β was expressed in 83% of tumour specimens where it was localized in the nuclei of tumour cells. The expression of ER-β correlated positively with the maintenance of E-cadherin and ss-catenin at cell junctions and negatively with the loss of E-cadherin, nuclear translocation of ss-catenin and increased TNM stage. We concluded that estrogen receptor-ss expression is documented in laryngeal cancer indicating a possible role in the pathogenesis of this malignancy. It is suggested that ER-ss could protect tumour cells from acquiring aggressive EMT features such as E-cadherin downregulation and nuclear ss-catenin activation.