Immunohistochemical analysis of steroid hormone receptors in nasopharyngeal angiofibromas

Juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma arises almost exclusively in pubertal and adolescent men and has potentially aggressive behavior with a spread into adjoining sinuses and bone destruction. It is classically being regarded as an androgen hormone-dependent tumor, but no in situ evaluation of androgen receptors has been done. The author has examined eight nasopharyngeal angiofibromas (six primary and two recurrent tumors) for the expression of androgen receptor (AR), estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) using immunohistochemical methods and compared those results with a sex- and age-matched control group consisting of eight samples of nasal turbinates. No ER or PR were found in any of the tumor components, nor have they been detected in control nasal turbinates. Angiofibromas were characterized by variable weak (+) nuclear androgen receptor immunoreactivity found in a minority of endothelial and stromal cells, similar to the normal turbinates. These results argue against the significant role of androgen receptor in the growth of nasal angiofibromas and corroborate previous observations of an unpredictable response of these neoplasms to antiandrogen therapy.