Immunohistochemical determination of the growth hormone receptor in squamous cell carcinoma of the skin

Abstract

Background: The growth hormone (GH) that regulates the metabolism, cell differentiation and growth, functions by acting on specific growth hormone receptors (GHR). As GHR have been detected in different types of human neoplasms, we wanted to determine GHR expression in squamous cell carcinoma of the skin (SCC).

Materials and Methods: An immunohistochemical technique was used to demonstrate the presence of GHR in 27 SCC specimens (grade G1) and the surrounding perilesional normal skin (PNS). The relative proportion of immunoreactive cells was counted following the semiquantitative method.

Results: There was an uniform GHR expression in PNS that presented itself as a weak positivity in all specimens. Among 27 SCC cases studied, 93% were immunoreactive: 18 were strongly positive, 5 moderately positive, 2 weakly positive and 2 negative.

Discussion: Our results confirm previous observations that neoplastic cells in skin tumors are directly responsive to GH action. For this reason GH could be involved through GHR in the development of cutaneous neoplasms.

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