Are cytosol estrogen and progestin receptors of prognostic significance in the management of epithelial ovarian cancers?

Cystosol estrogen and progestin receptor levels in tumor samples from 101 patients with previously untreated primary epithelial ovarian cancers were correlated with patient survival. Patients with stage I and II disease whose tumors contained elevated levels of cytosol progestin receptors had an improved survival over patients with tumors containing low levels of cytosol progestin receptors. However, patients with advanced ovarian cancers and low cytosol progestin receptors had significantly longer survival. The four-year estimated duration of survival with advanced disease and cytosol progestin receptors less than seven was 82%, whereas if the cytosol progestin receptors were seven or more, the four-year estimated duration of survival was only 10%. The explanation for this dichotomy is not evident at this time. In this study cytosol estrogen receptor levels were not associated with survival. These results suggest that measurement of cytosol progestin receptors is of prognostic value in advanced epithelial ovarian cancers.