Correlation between histochemically assessed hormonal receptor content and clinical course in breast cancer....

Lee's histochemical method was used to assess hormonal receptors in 1,005 patients with breast cancer. Patients were from 8 oncological departments in northern Italy. The group was subdivided into four subgroups in relation to menopausal status and presence or absence of axillary node metastasis. Overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were analysed in all subgroups in relation to receptorial status. We observed: (1) when hormonal receptors are present, OS and DFS are longer in all subgroups; (2) the presence of hormonal receptors influences favourably both DFS and OS, but it seems to play a more important role for DFS; (3) the positive receptorial status is a better prognostic factor in groups without axillary node metastasis, especially in premenopausal patients. We conclude that the histochemical assessment of hormonal receptors is a valid method for the prognostic evaluation of patients with breast cancer.