NUCLEAR AND CYTOPLASMIC ESTROGEN-RECEPTORS IN HUMAN MAMMARY-CARCINOMA

  • 1 January 1980
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 58  (20) , 807-813
Abstract
Methods for the measurement of cytoplasmic and nuclear estrogen receptors (CER and NER) are described. CER and NER were labile at ambient temperatures; the receptors are stable for up to 1 yr when stored in liquid nitrogen. Over a period of 5 yr, 51% of the breast adenocarcinomas examined in women were positive for CER; 4 adenocarcinomas of the breast obtained from men were positive for CER; in those tumors examined for CER and NER, 46% were positive for CER and 30% positive for NER; no tumor was positive for NER and negative for CER. In older female patients, the percentage of patients positive for estrogen receptors increased and they were present in higher concentrations; in younger Indian women the same tendency was observed. The percentages of receptor-positive tumors in Indians, blacks and whites are similar. Neither the stage of the tumor nor the presence of nodal metastases influenced receptor positivity; there was no significant difference in the time to recurrence between receptor-positive and receptor-negative patients in the small number with reliable follow-up data. [The value of estrogen receptor measurements in carcinoma of the breast is a means of predicting the response to endocrine therapy and chemotherapy.].