Objectives: Glucocorticoids (GCs) are used in cancer treatment to cause programmed cell death in transformed cells of the hematopoietic system and to lessen side-effects as nausea, vomiting, edema formation and allergies to specific chemotherapeutic agents. GCs act also as cofactor with human papillomaviruses in the etiology of cervical cancer. Moreover, recently GCs were described as inhibitors of some chemotherapy or radiation-induced apoptosis. The presence or not of a glucocorticoid receptor (GR) in normal and abnormal exocervices is thus interesting.
Methods: To clarify the issue, we tested by immunohistochemistry the expression status of GR in normal cervix epithelium (n = 30), in low-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (LSIL) (n = 30), in high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (HSIL) (n = 30) and in invasive squamous cell carcinoma (ISCC) (n = 30). All the patients with these lesions have a corresponding liquid-based cytology and were proved to be HPV-positive by using hybrid capture 2 methodology with probes against high-risk oncogenic HPVs. The evaluation of GR expression was performed by using the H-score system and an H-score > 50 was considered positive.
Result: GR expression was observed in normal epithelium, LSIL, HSIL and ISCC. No statistically significant difference concerning this expression was observed.
Conclusion: Because GCs could play a positive role in the progression of cancer, our demonstration of GR persistence in cervix cancer cells raises concern about the widespread combined use of GCs with antineoplastic drugs or agents in the clinical management of cervix cancer in women.