Estrogen receptor in carcinoma in situ of the cervix

The lining epithelium of the human cervix uteri is an estrogen dependent tissue containing specific intracellular receptors for this hormone. However, the influence of estrogen on an early neoplastic lesion arising from this epithelium, such as carcinoma in situ of the cervix, has not been determined. We evaluated 24 formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissue specimens of cervical carcinoma in situ for the presence of estrogen receptor by the immunoperoxidase technique. The antigenic sites of estrogen receptor were exposed by DNAse treatment followed by peroxidase-antiperoxidase (PAP) staining with monoclonal antibody against estrogen receptor. Parallel negative controls were run using negative control antibody and rat serum. Quality control for positive staining was performed using breast cancer tissue sections from specimens with known estrogen receptor detected by the radioreceptor method. Strongly positive staining was observed in all specimens in the nuclei of glandular epithelium, stromal cells, and basal and parabasal cells. However, nuclei within carcinoma in situ of the cervix showed no evidence of positive staining. Due to lack of specific intracellular receptor for estrogen, it appears that carcinoma in situ of the cervix will not be under direct influence of estrogen.