Steroid hormone receptors and clinical usefulness in human breast cancer

For more precise prediction of response to endocrine therapy in patients with advanced breast cancer, we investigated the correlation between the presence of combination of estrogen (ER), progesterone (PgR) receptors, or combination of ER, PgR and androgen receptor (AR) and response to therapy. The patients with ER+, PgR+ tumors survived longer than those with ER+, PgR-, or ER-, PgR- tumors. A better response rate with longer survival time was obtained in patients with tumors that had three positive receptors or PgR+ and/or AR+ in addition to ER+ than in those with tumors of other combinations. According to the sequential assays of ER in tumors in several stages of breast cancer, it is likely that the positive rate of ER becomes lessened by the progression of cancer and by treatments. We stressed the significance of steroid hormone receptor assay in the mastectomy specimens for the prediction of response of therapy in case of the future recurrence of malignancy.