Significance of estrogen and progesterone receptors, disease-free interval, and site of first metastasis on survival of breast cancer patients

Abstract

Estrogen and progesterone receptors (ER/PR) were measured in primary tumors and metastases of 397 breast cancer patients. Survival following mastectomy was significantly longer in patients with ER and PR positive tumors, as was survival after first recurrence. The prognostic value of ER and PR was compared with such clinical factors as disease-free interval (DFI) and the dominant site of first metastasis by Cox's regression analysis. With all the different therapy modalities long DFI was the best prognostic indicator. However, in the patient group treated with endocrine therapy, ER and PR positivity was the best prognostic indicator, suggesting that longer survival in receptor positive patients was related to the response to endocrine treatment.

Linkage of progestin and epidermal growth factor signaling: Phosphorylation of progesterone receptors mediates transcriptional hypersensitivity and increased ligand-independent breast cancer cell growth

“…Further, ER+/PR+ tumors clearly metastasize (63). Progression of breast cancer is often correlated with overexpression of growth factors and receptors capable of establishing autocrine and/or paracrine growth-stimulatory loops.…”

Immunoradiometric detection of pS2 and total cathepsin D in primary breast cancer biopsies: their correlation with steroid receptors

“…Values between 3 and 20 fmol mg-' protein have commonly been used as a cut-off point for classifying a receptor as positive or negative. A value of 10 fmol mg-' protein is used in the majority of studies (Parl et al, 1984;Alanko et al, 1985) and in the present one.…”

Oestrogen receptor status of primary breast carcinomas and their metastases. Relation to pattern of spread and survival after recurrence

“…The The presence of oestrogen receptors (ERs) is associated with a prolonged survival in patients with both primary and recurrent breast cancer. This probability applies both to an increased effect of endocrine therapy in receptor positive patients (Alanko et al, 1985;Howell et al, 1984;Rose et al, 1985) and to qualitative differences between ER positive and negative tumours (Clark et al, 1987;Parl et al, 1984;Shek et al, 1987).The ER status of a given tumour should be regarded as a reflection of the average receptor content from cell clones with varying receptor contents. It is unknown whether clones with different receptor content metastasise to different organs or whether it is the 'average' ER content per se which reflects specific biological subtypes.…”