Ovarian cancer is a major gynaecological cancer with different subtypes and studies have suggested that estrogen receptor (ER) or progesterone receptor (PR) positivity are associated with better clinical outcomes.
However, association analyses of two polymorphisms suggest that the ER-alpha gene or a gene located close to the ER-alpha locus might be related to susceptibility of familial ovarian cancer without BRCA1 mutation.
Additionally, we found elevated binding of the estrogen receptor (ER) in H-ras ER element in all pairs of ovarian tumor/normal tissue tested, whereas in ER-negative control breast tumor/normal tissue pairs, no differences in ER DNA-binding levels were observed.
To study a potential role of estrogen receptor-alpha gene amplification for estrogen receptor overexpression in ovarian cancer, a tumor tissue microarray containing 428 ovarian cancers was analyzed by fluorescence in situ hybridization for estrogen receptor-alpha gene amplification and immunohistochemistry for estrogen receptor expression.
These results indicate that aberrant hypermethylation may be responsible for a significant proportion of epithelial ovarian tumours in which oestrogen receptor alpha expression is lost.
A SNP 19 kb downstream of ESR1 (rs2295190, G-to-T change) was associated with invasive ovarian cancer risk, with a per-T-allele odds ratio (OR) of 1.24 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.06-1.44, P = 0.006]. rs2295190 is a nonsynonymous coding SNP in a neighboring gene called spectrin repeat containing, nuclear envelope 1 (SYNE1), which is involved in nuclear organization and structural integrity, function of the Golgi apparatus, and cytokinesis.
The present study was designed to evaluate the E2-independent effect of ERα/β on leptin-mediated cell invasion and cell proliferation in ovarian cancer.
In addition, intracellular hK4 levels, as detected on Western blot analysis, were induced by 100 nM estrogen treatment of the estrogen receptor positive ovarian carcinoma cell line OVCAR-3, >8-24 h. Our results show that the level of KLK4 expression and expression of KLK4 mRNA variants are associated with progression of ovarian cancer, particularly late stage SER adenocarcinomas.
Conversely, estrogen receptor signaling downregulates miR-486-5p and upregulates OLFM4 expression, slowing the development and progression of ovarian cancer.
Meanwhile, the at-risk A allele was positively related with the occurrence of mucinous ovarian cancer (OR = 3.48; 95% CI:1.15-6.83; P = 0.001), low degree of differentiation (OR = 1.87; 95% CI:1.03-3.47; P = 0.003), lymph node metastasis (OR = 1.69; 95% CI: 1.14-2.75; P = 0.010) and estrogen receptor positive (OR = 2.72; 95% CI: 1.38-4.81; P = 0.002).
In the present study, estrogen receptor α (ERα)-negative/GPER-positive OVCAR5 ovarian cancer cell line was used to investigate the role of GPER in the migration and invasion of ovarian cancer.
Estrogen receptor (ER) positivity and progesterone receptor (PR) positivity were significant protective factors against subsequent BC and ovarian cancer.
Despite estrogen receptor (ER) expression in 67% of OVCAs, small anti-estrogen therapy trials have been disappointing and the benefit of hormonal therapy has not been systematically studied in large well-designed trials.
Conversely, estrogen did not influence expression of BRCA1 in HBL-100 cells that lacked the estrogen receptor, although the constitutive levels of BRCA1 mRNA (but not protein) in these cells were 5- to 30-fold higher than in other breast and ovarian cancer cells.