Female Sex but Not Oestrogen Receptor Expression Predicts Survival in Advanced Gastroesophageal Adenocarcinoma—A Post-hoc Analysis of the GO2 Trial

Mark A. Baxter*, Lindsay C. Spender, Shaun Walsh, Susan Bray, Gemma Skinner, Sharon King, Peter S. Hall, Matthew J. Seymour, Russell D. Petty

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

Gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma is a disease of older adults that is associated with a very poor prognosis. It is less common and has better outcomes in females. The reason for this is unknown but may relate to signalling via the main oestrogen receptors (ER) α and β. In this study, we sought to investigate this using the GO2 clinical trial patient cohort. GO2 recruited older and/or frail patients with advanced gastroesophageal cancer. Immunohistochemistry was performed on tumour samples from 194 patients. The median age of the population was 76 years (range 52–90), and 25.3% were female. Only one (0.5%) tumour sample was positive for ERα, compared to 70.6% for ERβ expression. There was no survival impact according to ERβ expression level. Female sex and younger age were associated with lower ERβ expression. Female sex was also associated with improved overall survival. To our knowledge, this is the largest study worldwide of ER expression in a cohort of patients with advanced gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma. It is also unique, given the age of the population. We have demonstrated that female sex is associated with better survival outcomes with palliative chemotherapy but that this does not appear to be related to ER IHC expression. The differing ER expression according to age supports the concept of a different disease biology with age.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2591
JournalCancers
Volume15
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 3 May 2023

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • astroesophageal cance
  • oestrogen receptor
  • older adults
  • prognosis
  • biomarkr

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Female Sex but Not Oestrogen Receptor Expression Predicts Survival in Advanced Gastroesophageal Adenocarcinoma—A Post-hoc Analysis of the GO2 Trial'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this