Significance of ERCC1 and Hormonal Receptor Expression in Ovarian Cancer

Background & Objectives : Ovarian carcinoma usually has a relatively poor prognosis. A rational approach to identify patients, who are likely to benefit from therapy, is urgently needed. Excision repair cross-complementation group 1 enzyme (ERCC1) has been proposed as a molecular predictor of clinical resistance to platinum-based chemotherapy. Steroid hormone receptors are important determinants of prognosis and predictive behavior in tumor tissues of several origins. The present study aimed to investigate the expression profile of ERCC1, ER & AR in patients with Ovarian carcinoma and their association with patient outcome. Methods : This is a prospective study which included 77 patients with ovarian carcinoma who were treated with platinum based chemotherapy at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Egypt during the period 7/2016- 7/2018. We evaluated the expression of ER, AR, and Excision repair cross-complementation group 1 enzyme (ERCC1) by immunohistochemistry. Expression profiles were compared to clinical, histologic and prognostic factors, the clinical outcome and survival. All patients received platinum containing chemotherapy regimen. Result : Of the 77 patients with ovarian cancer, 66.2 % (51/77) were ERCC1-positive, 49.4 % (38/77) were AR positive & 75.3 % (58/77) were ER positive. Platinum resistance was found in eight of the tumors with positive ERCC1 protein expression compared with two among the patients with negative tumor staining for ERCC1 (P = 0.643). There was significant association between ER & AR expression and pathological subtypes (p = 0.004, 0.007) respectively. There were no significant association between ER, AR & ERCC1 expression and PFS (P = 0.447,P = 0.162, P = 0.508 respectively) or OS (P = 0.781, P = 0.569, P = 0.381 respectively). Based on Cox proportional hazards regression analysis ERCC1, ER & AR were not independent factors affecting the prognosis of patients with ovarian carcinoma. Conclusion : These results demonstrate that positive ERCC1 expression is not associated with clinical resistance to platinum-based chemotherapy, ERCC1, AR & ER expression are not independent factors affecting the prognosis of patients with epithelial ovarian tumors and not associated with survival benefits.