Immunohistochemical expression of hormone receptors in melanoma of pregnant women, nonpregnant women, and men.

The survival advantage of women over men with cutaneous melanoma and the reports of accelerated progression of melanoma during pregnancy have led to studies of the effect of hormones and hormone receptors on the development and progression of melanoma. However, the results are inconclusive. We therefore evaluated the expression of estrogen receptor α, estrogen receptor β, and androgen receptor in melanomas of stage- and age-matched pregnant women, nonpregnant women, and men by immunohistochemical analysis of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded archival tissues. In addition, we also assessed the mitotic rate using the antiphosphohistone H3 antibody by immunohistochemistry. Our data showed a trend of more frequent expression of estrogen receptor β in the melanomas of pregnant patients than in the melanomas of male patients, without a significant difference observed between pregnant and nonpregnant women. However, no association between the expression of estrogen receptor β and survival was observed. The small cohort may have limited the statistical power of the study, and large-scale studies are needed to elucidate the potential role of estrogen receptor β as a prognostic marker of melanoma.