Context: Different authors have reported estrogen receptor (ER) expression between 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 expression 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 cell 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 (undifferentiated) carcinoma constituted 10.4% of the entire population; squamous cell carcinoma, 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 either 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 comparison of data. In addition, the presence of ER and PR expression in a lung carcinoma is supportive of a nonpulmonary primary tumor metastatic to the lung. The absence of their expression in non-small cell lung cancer does not support a role of these transcription factors in initiating and maintaining this neoplastic process.