Gender difference in survival of patients with gastric cancer is not well investigated. The aim of this study was to analyze the gender-related distribution of estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) and androgen receptor (AR) in the epithelium and stroma of intestinal-type gastric cancer.

Immunohistochemical analysis was performed in 60 patients (42% females).

In gastric cancer patients, frequency of ERα-positive cells was lower in epithelium than in healthy individuals, but not significantly. In stroma and epithelium, AR-positive cells were absent from samples of women with T1 and T2 stage disease, while in men, their frequency was significantly increased in stroma of those with T3 and T4 stages and was significantly higher compared to women. AR-positive cells in stroma were fibroblasts, myofibroblasts and mast cells.

To our knowledge, this study is the first to show gender differences in the distribution and frequency of AR-positive cells in neoplastic stroma of gastric cancer.