ABSTRACT
Juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma [JNA] is uncommon benign tumor that occur exclusively in the lateral portion of nasopharynx of adolescent boys. Sex selectivity at JNA may suggest relation its pathogenesis to hormonal changes of pubertal period .Some reports showed indirect evidence for the presence of androgen [AR], estrogen [ER], and progesterone [PR] receptors, in these tumors. The goal of the current study was to show direct evidence of sex hormone receptor expression in angiofibroma with use of immunohistochemical technique and to document which cells population express these receptors. 30 cases of juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma and equal number of normal nasopharyngeal tissue were selected from archive of pathology department of mashhad Ghaem hospital then standard Immunohistochemical technique was performed in theirs paraffin blocks with ER, PR and AR immunohistochemical markers. Nuclear immunoreactivity was examined in stromal and endothelial cells of each case then these results analyzed with Pearson Chi-Square test. AR, and ER expression was seen in angiofibroma in 80% and 26.7% and in normal tissue 26.7% and 10% of cases respectively. We did not find any PR expression in both normal and tumoral tissue. Differences between AR expression in tumoral and normal tissue was meaningful but this correlation do not true about ER and PR. our results maybe agree with the significant role of androgen receptors in the pathogenesis of angiofibroma and benefit of antiandrongeic drugs for therapeutic response