Angioleiomyoma of the nasal cavity is extremely rare. There are only a small number of studies in the literature that demonstrate that the
estrogen receptor (ER) and
progesterone receptor (PR) are expressed in
angioleiomyoma, and the results from these studies are inconsistent. The present study identified 6 patients with nasal
angioleiomyoma that were treated between 2004 and 2013. All patients underwent endoscopic surgery and were followed-up for 1-10 years. Resected
tumors were investigated for the presence of ER and PR using immunoperoxidase staining. Of the 6 patients, 4 were men and 2 were woman. The mean age of the patients was 60.5 years. The
tumors of the 6 patients were identified in the nasal septum, middle turbinate, inferior turbinate, lateral wall of the nasal cavity and nasal vestibule. The clinical manifestations reported by the patients consisted of a painless mass, recurrent
epistaxis and
nasal obstruction. There were no specific features observed in any of the patients using computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging. All the patients underwent
tumor dissection visualized with a nasal
endoscope and recovered without recurrence or
malignancy of the
tumor post-surgery.
Hematoxylin and
eosin and immunoperoxidase staining confirmed the diagnosis of
angioleiomyoma in all patients. In 5 patients the nuclei of the
smooth muscle tumor cells markedly expressed ER and PR. To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first to demonstrate that ER and PR are clearly expressed in nasal
angioleiomyoma. The present study suggests that the
sex hormones are possibly associated with the growth of
angioleiomyoma.