Estrogen and progesterone receptors in head and neck cancer.

The existence of hormone receptors on or within neoplastic tissue has potential diagnostic, therapeutic, and prognostic importance. It was the purpose of this study to measure estrogen and progesterone receptors in a large group of patients with head and neck cancer to determine their frequency. Sixty-five patients with head and neck tumors underwent a total of 75 estrogen and 50 progesterone receptor assays. In this group, 87.7% were squamous cell carcinoma. In the estrogen receptor assays, 89.3% (67/75) were negative, 8% (6/75) were borderline, and only 2.7% (2/75) were positive. In the progesterone receptor assays, 78% (39/50) were negative, 22% (11/50) were borderline, and there were no positive results. There were no changes in assays of tissue removed at biopsy v tissue removed during surgery. There was no impact with chemotherapy. In conclusion, head and neck cancers do not appear to possess estrogen or progesterone receptors and can be considered to be hormonally independent.