CLINICAL-RESPONSE TO HORMONE-THERAPY CORRELATED WITH ESTROGEN-RECEPTOR ANALYSES - BIOCHEMICAL V HISTOCHEMICAL METHODS

  • 1 January 1984
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 108  (1) , 24-26
Abstract
Estrogen receptor (ER) analysis by sucrose density gradient analysis (SDGA) was compared with histochemical localization of estrogen binding using 6-carbomethoxy-bovine serum albumin-fluorescein isothiocyanode-estradiol (E2-6-CMO-BSA-FITC) (6FE), 17-thiosemicarbozene-BSA-FITC-estrogen (E-17-TSC-BSA-FITC) (17FE), and polyestradiol phosphate-antiestradiol antibody-FITC (PEP) on serial frozen sections of metastatic breast cancer lesions from 72 patients treated with hormonal therapy. A comparison of assays to clinical responses gave the following sensitivities: ER-SDGA, 90%, 6FE, 50%; 17FE, 55%; and PEP, 58%. Specificities were as follows: ER-SDGA, 81%; 6FE, 47%; 17FE, 41%; and PEP, 59%. The SDGA gave the highest predictive value for clinical response, while the predictive value for each of the 3 histologic techniques approximated that predicted by chance alone. These selected histochemical techniques for ER localization, despite impressive cytologic localization patterns, therefore, do not correlate with clinical response.