Beta-adrenergic receptors are expressed across diverse cancers

• Published in: Oncoscience Vol. 4; no. 7-8; pp. 95 - 105
• Main Authors: Rains, Steven L, Amaya, Clarissa N, Bryan, Brad A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Impact Journals LLC 23.08.2017
• Subjects: Research Paper; beta adrenergic; beta blocker; cancer
• DOI: 10.18632/oncoscience.357
• ISSN: 2331-4737

Based largely on retrospective analyses and a handful of prospective case reports, pharmacological inhibition of the beta adrenergic receptors using beta blockers has shown clinical anti-cancer efficacy in reproductive cancers, as well as angiosarcoma and multiple myeloma. Because of the potential promise of beta blockers as an adjunct to standard anti-cancer therapy, it is imperative to identify other tumor types expressing beta adrenergic (β-AR) receptors so future preclinical and clinical studies can be directed at the most promising tumor targets. We performed immunohistochemical detection of β1-AR, β2-AR, and β3-AR across 29 of the most common human cancer types (389 tissues total) and 19 matching non-diseased controls (100 tissues total). Our analysis revealed all three β-AR receptors were expressed most strongly in melanoma relative to other cancer types. Other malignancies that revealed relatively higher levels of β-AR receptors were esophagus, pancreas, kidney, and lung cancers. Moreover, particular β-AR receptors exhibited significant overexpression in tumor tissue relative to their matching normal tissue in urogenital/reproductive malignancies including breast, endometrium, ovarian, and urothelial cancer, as well as colon, lung, and thyroid cancer. This study identifies several cancer types expressing the β-AR receptors which should be evaluated in future studies for susceptibility to beta blockade.