[Comparison between the biochemical and histochemical determination of hormone receptors in breast carcinomas]

The hormonal sensitivity of breast cancer on one hand indicates the prognosis and on the other determines the therapeutical procedure when metastases appear. It also seems to be important in the choice of adjuvant therapy. Therefore the analysis of hormonal receptors in our opinion is at least as important as the histological typification of the carcinoma. As there was a trend recently showing up the so-called histochemical steroid-receptor-assay which is much less complicated than the biochemical (quantitative) method, we investigated the value of this fluorescence-microscopical assay by means of parallel determinations. In the results of 157 patients of the last three years we found differences in 45% of all oestrogen-receptor-determinations and in 50% of 29 progesterone-receptor-determinations. This indicates that the histochemical assay is most probably not representative. There is serious doubt about the possibility to document the hormone receptor by this method at all. Therefore it does not seem advisable at the moment to waive the biochemical receptor determination.