Expression and significance of estrogen receptor isoforms in the development of human breast carcinoma / 中华外科杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the estrogen receptors (ER)alpha and ERbeta expression and their relationship with clinicopathological parameters in human breast carcinoma.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Samples were obtained from 30 breast carcinoma, reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction was used to measure the expression of ERalpha and ERbeta mRNA.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>ERalpha mRNA level was up-regulated in breast carcinoma tissue compared with adjacent normal tissue (t = 7.399, P < 0.01) while down-regulated in ERbeta. The relative ratio of ERalpha and ERbeta was decreased in normal tissue vs. carcinoma (t = 6.385, P < 0.01), in patients with lymph node metastasis vs. those without lymph node metastasis (t = 2.602, P < 0.05), in late stage carcinoma vs. early stage (t = 3.754, P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>ERalpha and ERbeta play divergent role in the development of human breast carcinoma.</p>