TY - JOUR
T1 - Estrogen receptor-β affects the prognosis of human malignant mesothelioma
AU - Pinton, Giulia
AU - Brunelli, Elisa
AU - Murer, Bruno
AU - Puntoni, Riccardo
AU - Puntoni, Matteo
AU - Fennell, Dean A.
AU - Gaudino, Giovanni
AU - Mutti, Luciano
AU - Moro, Laura
PY - 2009/6/1
Y1 - 2009/6/1
N2 - Malignant pleural mesothelioma is an asbestos-related neoplasm with poor prognosis, refractory to current therapies, the incidence of which is expected to increase in the next decades. Female gender was identified as a positive prognostic factor among other clinical and biological prognostic markers for malignant mesothelioma, yet a role of estrogen receptors (ERs) has not been studied. Our goal was to investigate ERs expression in malignant mesothelioma and to assess whether their expression correlates with prognosis. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed intense nuclear ERβ staining in normal pleura that was reduced in tumor tissues. Conversely, neither tumors nor normal pleura stained positive for ERα. Multivariate analysis of 78 malignant mesothelioma patients with pathologic stage, histologic type, therapy, sex, and age at diagnosis indicated that ERβ expression is an independent prognostic factor of better survival. Moreover, studies in vitro confirmed that treatment with 17β-estradiol led to an ERβ-mediated inhibition of malignant mesothelioma cell proliferation as well as p21CIP1 and p27KIP1 up-regulation. Consistently cell growth was suppressed by ERβ overexpression, causing a G2-M-phase cell cycle arrest, paralleled by cyclin B1 and survivin down-regulation. Our data support the notion that ERβ acting as a tumor suppressor is of high potential relevance to prediction of disease progression and to therapeutic response of malignant mesothelioma patients.
AB - Malignant pleural mesothelioma is an asbestos-related neoplasm with poor prognosis, refractory to current therapies, the incidence of which is expected to increase in the next decades. Female gender was identified as a positive prognostic factor among other clinical and biological prognostic markers for malignant mesothelioma, yet a role of estrogen receptors (ERs) has not been studied. Our goal was to investigate ERs expression in malignant mesothelioma and to assess whether their expression correlates with prognosis. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed intense nuclear ERβ staining in normal pleura that was reduced in tumor tissues. Conversely, neither tumors nor normal pleura stained positive for ERα. Multivariate analysis of 78 malignant mesothelioma patients with pathologic stage, histologic type, therapy, sex, and age at diagnosis indicated that ERβ expression is an independent prognostic factor of better survival. Moreover, studies in vitro confirmed that treatment with 17β-estradiol led to an ERβ-mediated inhibition of malignant mesothelioma cell proliferation as well as p21CIP1 and p27KIP1 up-regulation. Consistently cell growth was suppressed by ERβ overexpression, causing a G2-M-phase cell cycle arrest, paralleled by cyclin B1 and survivin down-regulation. Our data support the notion that ERβ acting as a tumor suppressor is of high potential relevance to prediction of disease progression and to therapeutic response of malignant mesothelioma patients.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=66349102769&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-08-4523
DO - 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-08-4523
M3 - Article
SN - 0008-5472
VL - 69
SP - 4598
EP - 4604
JO - Cancer Research
JF - Cancer Research
IS - 11
ER -