Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology logoLink to Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology
. 1987 May;113(3):285–290. doi: 10.1007/BF00396387

Prognostic significance of steroid hormone receptors and histopathological characterization of human breast cancer

A Reiner 1,✉, R Kolb 2, G Reiner 2, R Jakesz 2, M Schemper 2, J Spona 3
PMCID: PMC12248331  PMID: 3584218

Abstract

Since breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease, evaluation of prognosis is an obvious problem. The prognostic significance of several pathological criteria including tumor grading according to WHO, steroid hormone receptor status, histological tumor type, tumor size, and axillary lymph node involvement have been investigated. The single parameters with the strongest prognostic significance were axillary lymph node status, tumor grading, and estrogen receptor status. A significant direct correlation exists between tumor grading and steroid hormone receptors, but nevertheless on stratified analysis both factors independently affected the risk of death. Tumor size had weak prognostic importance and histological tumor types failed to show any statistically significant differences with regard to survival.

Key words: Breast cancer, Steroid hormone receptors, Histopathology, Tumor differentiation, Prognosis

References

  1. Alanko A, Makinen J, Scheinin TM, Tolppanen E-M, Vihko R (1984) Correlation of estrogen and progesterone receptors and histological grade in human primary breast cancer. Acta Path Microbiol Immunol (Scand Sect A) 92:311–315 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Allegra JC, Lippman ME, Simon R, Thompson EB, Barlock A, Green L, Huff KK, Do HMT, Aitken SC, Warren R (1979) Association between steroid hormone receptor status and disease-free interval in breast cancer. Cancer Treat Rep 63:1271–1277 [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Azzopardi JG (1979) Problems in breast pathology. Major problems in pathology, vol 11. Saunders, London Philadelphia Toronto [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Bässler R (1978) Pathologie der Brustdrüse. Spezielle pathologische Anatomie, Bd 11. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York [Google Scholar]
  5. Blanco G, Alavaikko M, Ojala A, Collan Y, Heikkinen M, Hietanen T, Aine R, Taskinen PJ (1984) Estrogen and progesterone receptors in breast cancer: relationships to tumour histopathology and survival of patients. Anticancer Res 4:383–389 [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Bloom HJG, Richardson WW (1957) Histological grading and prognosis in breast cancer. Br J Cancer 11:359–377 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Breslow N (1970) A generalized Kruskal-Wallis test for comparing K samples subject to unequal patterns of censorship. Biometrika 57:579–594 [Google Scholar]
  8. Clark GM, McGuire WL, Hubay CA, Pearson OH, Marshall JS (1983) Progesterone receptors as a prognostic factor in Stage II breast cancer. New Engl J Med 309:1343–1347 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Dixon WJ, Brown MB, Engleman L, Frane JW, Hill MA, Jennrich RI, Toporek JD (1983) BMDP statistical software. Berkeley, Univ of California Press [Google Scholar]
  10. Fisher B, Slack NH, Bross IDJ and Cooperating Investigators (1969) Cancer of the breast: size of neoplasm and prognosis. Cancer 24:1071–1080 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Fisher ER, Redmond CK, Liu H, Rockette H, Fisher B and collaborating NSABP Investigators (1980) Correlation of estrogen receptor and pathologic characteristics of invasive breast cancer. Cancer 45:349–353 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Hanselmann R, Genton CY (1983) Beziehung zwischen Morphologie und Steroidrezeptoren beim Mammakarzinom. Pathologe 4:17–23 [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Kaplan EL, Meier P (1958) Nonparametric estimation from incomplete observations. J Am Statist Assoc 53:457–481 [Google Scholar]
  14. Kodama F, Greene GL, Salmon SE (1985) Relationship of estrogen receptor expression to clonal growth and antiestrogen effects on human breast cancer cells. Cancer Res 45:2720–2724 [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Mantel N (1966) Evaluation of survival data and two new rank order statistics arising in its consideration. Cancer Chemother Rep 50:163–170 [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Meyer JS, Rao BR, Stevens SC, White WL (1977) Low incidence of estrogen receptors in breast carcinomas with rapid rates of cellular replication. Cancer 40:2290–2298 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Mossler JA, Barton TK, Brinkhous AD, McCarty KS, Moylan JA, McCarty KS (1980) Apocrine differentiation in human mammary carcinoma. Cancer 46:2463–2471 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Parl FF, Wagner RK (1980) The histopathological evaluation of human breast cancers in correlation with estrogen receptor values. Cancer 46:362–367 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Parl FF, Dupont WD (1982) A retrospective cohort study of histologic risk factors in breast cancer patients. Cancer 50:2410–2416 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Poulsen HS, Ozzello L, Andersen J (1982) Oestrogen receptors in human breast cancer. Problems of correlation with histopathological features. Virchows Arch (Pathol Anat) 397:103–108 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Rasmussen BB, Rose C, Thorpe SM, Hou-Jensen K, Daehnfeldt JL, Palshof T (1981) Histopathological characteristics and oestrogen receptor content in primary breast carcinoma. Virchows Arch (Pathol Anat) 390:347–351 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Reiner G, Bieglmayer Ch, Jakesz R, Kees A, Kolb R, Spona J (1981) Steroidrezeptoren im Mammakarzinom in Beziehung zum basalen Serumhormonspiegel bei postmenopausalen Patientinnen. Wien Klin Wochenschr 93:339–342 [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Rosen PP, Menendez-Botet CJ, Nisselbaum JS, Urban JA, Miké V, Fracchia A, Schwartz MK (1975) Pathological review of breast lesions analyzed for estrogen receptor protein. Cancer Res 35:3187–3194 [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Say CC, Donegan WL (1974) Invasive carcinoma of the breast: prognostic significance of tumor size and involved axillary lymph nodes. Cancer 34:468–471 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Silfverswärd C, Gustafsson J, Gustafsson SA, Humla S, Nordenskjöld B, Wallgren A, Wrange Ö (1980) Estrogen receptor concentrations in 269 cases of histologically classified human breast cancer. Cancer 45:2001–2005 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Stenkvist B, Westman-Naeser S, Vegelius J, Holmquist J, Nordin B, Bengtsson E, Eriksson O (1979) Analysis of reproducibility of subjective grading systems for breast carcinoma. J Clin Pathol 32:979–985 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Stenkvist B, Bengtsson E, Dahlqvist B, Eklund G, Eriksson O, Jarkrans T, Nordin B (1982) Predicting breast cancer recurrence. Cancer 50:2884–2893 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Thoresen S (1982) Histological grading and clinical stage at presentation in breast carcinoma. Br J Cancer 46:457 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Thoresen S, Tangen M, Stoa KF, Hartveit F (1981) Oestrogen receptor values and histological grade in human breast cancer. Histopathology 5:257–262 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Wittliff JL (1984) Steroid hormone receptors in breast cancer. Cancer 53:630–643 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology are provided here courtesy of Springer

RESOURCES