Histological detection of oestrogen receptor in human breast carcinomas

Histological (immunocytochemical and cytochemical) methods for demonstrating oestrogen receptor within breast-cancer cells gave a positive reaction in 29 (83%) of 35 breast carcinomas. Oestrogen receptor could be demonstrated in cytoplasm and nucleus in 15, cytoplasm only in 10, and nucleus only in 4. 24 (68.5%) of the carcinomas had detectable oestrogen receptor by the dextran-coated charcoal method, and all of these were positive by histological methods. The cytochemical method gave much better results than the immunocytochemical method and showed that carcinomas contain variable proportions of oestrogen-receptor-positive and oestrogen-receptor-negative cells.