Expression of glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and clinical significance in adrenocortical carcinoma.
Front Endocrinol (Lausanne)
; 13: 903824, 2022.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35992138
ABSTRACT
Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare endocrine tumor, and most cases present with hormone excess with poor prognosis. Our research aims to determine the clinical and biological significance of glucocorticoid receptor (GR) expression using large cohorts of ACC patients. Immunohistochemistry was used to assess the expression of GR in 78 ACC cases from the West China Hospital (WCH) cohort. RNA-seq data were retrieved from The Cancer Genome Atlas database (TCGA, n=79). Clinicopathological and follow-up data were obtained from two cohorts. The correlation between the GR gene and tumor immune status was estimated using TIMER and GEPIA2. Kaplan-Meier analysis was performed to identify the prognostic value of GR in ACC. In the WCH cohort, positive nuclear GR staining was identified in 90% of the primary ACC cases. Cortisol-secreting ACCs demonstrated significantly lower GR protein expression than did nonfunctioning tumors (P<0.001). This finding was validated by the mRNA data analysis of the TCGA cohort (P = 0.030). GR expression was found to be positively correlated with the immune cell infiltration level and immune-checkpoint-related gene expression in ACC. Survival comparison and multivariate analysis showed that GR expression is an independent prognostic predictor of disease-free survival and overall survival in ACC patients in both cohorts. Our findings suggest that low GR expression is significantly correlated with excess cortisol, immune signatures and poor survival in ACC patients. We propose that GR signaling may play an important role in ACC behavior and thus may be a therapeutic target, which deserves further research.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Receptores de Glucocorticoides
/
Neoplasias de la Corteza Suprarrenal
/
Carcinoma Corticosuprarrenal
Tipo de estudio:
Prognostic_studies
Límite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Front Endocrinol (Lausanne)
Año:
2022
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
China