Prognosis of cervical cancers with reference to steroid receptors

The relationship among the prognosis of a patient with cancer of the cervix and endocrine background [production of estrogen receptor (ER), progestogen receptor (PR), and androgen receptor (AR)], clinical stage, histological type, lymph node metastasis, age, and treatment was studied. ERs were detected in almost all cases, regardless of the histological type of cancer. The detection rate and level of PR were in the decreasing order of large-cell non-keratinizing (LNK) carcinoma, keratinizing (K) carcinoma, and small-cell non-keratinizing (SNK) carcinoma of the cervix. Thus, the presence and level of PR in squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix were considered to be an indicator of the degree of differentiation. PR was not detected in cases of adenocarcinoma of the cervix. This may explain the poor responsiveness to progestogen treatment in adenocarcinoma of the cervix. There was no relationship between the patient's prognosis and the presence of PR or AR, but the prognosis of patients with lesions rich in ER (greater than or equal to 5 fmol/micrograms DNA) tended to be better than that of patients with lesions poor in ER (less than 5 fmol/micrograms DNA). The prognosis of patients before menopause tended to be better than that postmenopause. These findings indicate a relationship between cancer of the cervix and endocrine background.