Estrogen receptor-beta expression in different histopatho-logical grades of urothelial tumours

Aims: to evaluate and compare estrogen receptor-beta expression status between different histopathological grades and invasive and non-invasive urothelial carcinoma. methods: a total of 50 cases of primary urothelial carcinoma of different grades and stages,from different ages of both sexes,were taken by convenience sampling in this cross-sectional study. routine immunohistochemical staining protocols were used to detect er-β expression in formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissue from trans-urethral resection of urothelial carcinoma. the percentage of cells with positive nuclear stain for er-β was assessed semi-quantitatively by using immuno-reactive score with irs > 2 considered as er-β positive. results: the ages of all the patients ranged from 42 to 95 years. these included 37 males and 13 females. according to the interpretation of irs for er-β nuclear immunostaining,27(54%) patients were classified as er-β positive. significantly higher proportion of high grade (p= 0.0006) and invasive (p = 0.0001) cancers showed er-β expression. conclusions: stronger and higher er-β positive expression in significantly greater proportion of high grade and invasive carcinomas as compared to low grade and non-invasive tumours.