Estrogen receptor β expression and androgen receptor phosphorylation correlate with a poor clinical outcome in hormone-naïve prostate cancer and are elevated in castration-resistant disease

Authors:
  • ABAlexander Bachmann
    Alexander Bachmann
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Abstract
Patients with advanced prostate cancer (PC) are usually treated with androgen withdrawal. While this therapy is initially effective, nearly all PCs become refractory to it. As hormone receptors play a crucial role in this process, we constructed a tissue microarray consisting of PC samples from 107 hormone-naïve (HN) and 101 castration-resistant (CR) PC patients and analyzed the androgen receptor (AR) gene copy number and the protein expression profiles of AR, Serin210-phosphorylated AR (pAR210), estrogen receptor (ER)β, ERα and the proliferation marker Ki67. The amplification of the AR gene was virtually restricted to CR PC and was significantly associated with increased AR protein expression (PP=0.001). Strong AR expression was observed in a subgroup of HN PC patients with an adverse prognosis. In contrast, the absence of AR expression in CR PC was significantly associated with a poor overall survival. While pAR210 was predominantly found in CR PC patients (P210 positivity was observed in a subgroup of HN PC patients with a poor survival (P210, the presence of ERβ in HN patients was significantly associated with an adverse prognosis (P210 and ERβ in HN PC. The expression of these markers might be directly involved in CR tumor growth.

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