Estrogens behave as protective agents on the development of colorectal cancer, and hormonal-replacement therapy is associated with an increased survival rate in women with this disease, indicating that estrogenic therapy correlates with a better prognosis. The protective effect of estrogens on Fcolorectal cancer development and progression is presumably related to the expression of estrogen receptors in colon mucosa, with the estrogen receptor-β isoform being the predominant one. This observation suggests that estrogen receptor-β could have an inhibitory effect on colorectal cancer cell proliferation and a regulatory effect on colonic mucosa cell growth, opening the discussion on a pharmacologic approach to colorectal cancer prevention and therapy based on estrogenic compounds.
Keywords: 17β-estradiol; colorectal cancer; colorectal cancer cell; estrogen receptor; estrogen receptor agonist; raloxifene; selective estrogen receptor modulator; tamoxifen.