[The criteria of the hormonal sensitivity of breast cancer]

The study deals with a complex approach to prognosis of hormone sensitivity in breast cancer patients on the basis of certain biological characteristics of tumor and the host. A number of clinical and morphological parameters were tested in 71 patients suffering breast tumors. The said parameters proved useful in determining hormone sensitivity and were used as a basis for indirect assay of estrogen receptors levels. Levels of estrogen (ER) and progesterone (PR) receptors and tumor sex chromatin (SC) were measured in 46 patients. Indirect determination of ER level should be recommended as an additional criterion for evaluating hormone sensitivity in breast cancer patients considering its findings matching (76-78.2%) those obtained in ER and PR assay by the labeled ligand binding method which uses dextran-covered charcoal. Close correlations (80.4%) and (sensitivity +1) were obtained for ER and PR, on the one hand, and that of sex chromatin, on the other, particularly, in ER+PR(+)-tumors. High concentration of sex chromatin in tumor is one of the most reliable criteria of measuring hormone sensitivity levels in breast cancer patients.