The Detection and Analysis of Estrogen and Progesterone Receptors in Breast Cancer (Report of 1,393 Patients)

OBJECTIVE To explore the distribution of estrogen receptors (ER) and progesterone receptors (PR) in patients with breast cancer and to compare the results with clinical parameters.

METHODS Breast cancer specimens of 1393 cases were stained for the ER and PR by a SP Two-Step method, and analyzed with respect to age, menstrual status, histopathology and metastasis of axillary lymph nodes.

RESULTS The correlation coefficients between ER and PR were positive-(P< 0.0001). The negative expression of ER in patients 39 years or less was the highest with a statistical significance (P<0.0001). There was no relationship between the patient’s age and positive expression of ER. PR and negative expression of PR (P>0.05). There were significantly higher positive rates of ER and lower positive rates of PR in post-menopausal patients than in premenopausal cases(P<0.0001). There was no relationship between the status of ER, PR and the corresponding histopathology (P>0.05). The patients with no metastasis in the axillary lymph nodes had higher simultaneous positive rates of ER and PR (P <0.0001), and those with axillary lymph node metastasis had significantly higher rates of negative expression of ER and PR (P<0.0001).

CONCLUSION The positive and negative distributions of ER and PR have some regular patterns which may be used as a reference to choose combined therapy and to predict the prognosis for breast cancer patients.