Neuropathology
Masoumeh Shafiei; Ahmad Mafi; Yalda Nilipour; Ainaz Sourati; Pegah Sasanpour; Morteza Tabatabaeefar
Abstract
Background & Objective:Gliomas are the most common type of primary intracranial tumors in adults. The expression of estrogen receptors varies in different grades of glial tumors, and some studies have suggested that this expression might have a prognostic value. It seems that estrogen receptor expression ...
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Background & Objective:Gliomas are the most common type of primary intracranial tumors in adults. The expression of estrogen receptors varies in different grades of glial tumors, and some studies have suggested that this expression might have a prognostic value. It seems that estrogen receptor expression negatively correlates with the histological grade of gliomas. In the present study, we aimed to determine the expression of estrogen receptor in different glial tumors in Iranian patients and to find a possible correlation between its expression and the grade of glial tumors.Methods:The brain tumors pathology reports from 2014 to 2017 in the Pathology Department of Shohaday-e Tajrish Hospital in Tehran, Iran were evaluated and 104 different gliomas: 79 cases of astrocytoma and 25 cases of oligodendroglioma were selected. All the samples were re-evaluated by a neuropathologist in order to accurately determine the tumor grade. The immunohistochemistry was carried out to detect the expression of estrogen receptor alpha and beta on brain tumors.Results:None of the samples expressed estrogen receptor alpha. In the case of estrogen receptor beta (ERβ), all samples showed various degrees of positivity: 9% weak, 40% moderate, and 51% strong expressions. The level of ERβ expression was found to be conversely correlated with tumor grade.Conclusion:Our study demonstrated that ERβ is expressed in the majority (if not all) of the glial tumors and its expression was conversely related to the tumor grade. Because of well-tolerability and acceptable adverse effects, ER agonists might be considered as therapeutic agents for the patients with glial tumors.
Azadeh Rajeipour; Arash Dehghan; Hosein Mahjoub
Volume 5, Issue 3 , June 2010, , Pages 109-116
Abstract
Background and Objective: Gliomas are the most common primary brain tumors. Despite therapeutic advances, the majority of gliomas do not respond to either chemo or radiotherapy. CD117, the gene product of c-kit has been expressed in cells of glial tumors. Because gastrointestinal stromal ...
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Background and Objective: Gliomas are the most common primary brain tumors. Despite therapeutic advances, the majority of gliomas do not respond to either chemo or radiotherapy. CD117, the gene product of c-kit has been expressed in cells of glial tumors. Because gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) that express CD117 respond dramatically to treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors, identification of glial tumors that express CD117 might open new therapeutic approaches for treatment of these tumors. Material and Methods: CD117 expression was investigated in 69 glial tumors of different types and grades. This protein was visualized by immunohistochemistry with commercially available antibody. The comparison of CD117 expression between high and low-grade tumors was evaluated with SPSS V16 soft ware and Chi square test. Results: Forty two percent of the tumors were positive for CD117 expression. There was a statistically significant difference in CD117 immunoreactivity between high grade and low-grade tumors (61.1% versus 21.2%, P=0.001). 96.6% of the positive cases had cell membranous and/or cytoplasmic staining. All except two of the positive cases showed strong expression intensity. In 26.1% of cases, CD117 also expressed in endothelial cells of tumor vessels that 88.9% of them was in high-grade tamors. Glioblastoma, anaplstic oligodendroglioma and anaplastic ependymoma showed the highest staining grade. Conclusion:CD117 has an important role in growth of glial tumors, especially high grade ones and that patients with CD117 expressing glial tumors might benefit from tyrosine kinase inhibitors. This finding should be further studied.