Oestradiol Receptors in Carcinoma and Benign Disease of the Breast: An In Vitro Assay

Abstract

SUMMARY.-An assay is described for measuring the concentration of specific, high-affinity oestradiol receptors in the cell supernatant fraction of breast tumour biopsies. The (Gorski et al, 1968;Jensen et al., 1968).The presence of oestrogen receptors has been demonstrated in hormonedependent tumours in experimental animals. notably in some dimethylbenzanthracene-induced mammary tumours in the rat and in oestrogen-induced kidney tumours in the hamster (King, Smith and Steggles, 1970;Mobbs, 1966; Sander and Attran-iadal, 1968

The association of cytosol oestrogen and progesterone receptors with histological features of breast cancer and early recurrence of disease

“…We also confirmed reports of a high incidence of REC in invasive lobular tumours (Rosen et al, 1975;Antoniades & Spector, 1979;Martin et al, 1979b;Rasmussen et al, 1981). Other workers have failed to demonstrate any such association (Johansson et al, 1970;Feherty et al, 1971;Wittliff et al, 1971;LeClercq et al, 1973;Aspegren & Hakansson, 1974), but in most series the majority of tumours were infiltrating duct carcinomas and, as in the present study, the number of uncommon histological types was too small to permit statistical evaluation. The finding that both invasive lobular and tubular carcinomas have a high incidence of REC supports the hypothesis that they are extreme variants of the same histological entity (Eusebi et al, 1979).…”

“…These findings are identical with those of Masters et al (1978) and similar, in part, to the results of Terenius et al (1974), Antoniades &Spector (1979) andMartin et al (1979a). Rosen et al (1975) observed some association between cellularity and RE, value but did not consider it significant . Feherty et al (1971) and Rasmussen et al (1981) were unable to show this association.…”

“…Although in the past it was generally accepted that there was no association between the presence of REC and the histological features of infiltrating duct tumours (Johansson et al, 1970;Feherty et al, 1971;Rosen et al, 1975), only Feherty used the W.H.O. recommended system of grading.…”

“…Though the receptor content of the primary tumour is reported to be independent of factors such as tumour site or size, age of patient or degree of axillary node involvement (Knight et al, 1977) (Sander, 1968;Korenman & Dukes, 1970;Johansson et al, 1970;Feherty et al, 1971;Wittliff et al, 1971;LeClercq et al, 1973;Terenius et al, 1974;Aspergren & Hakansson, 1974). However, in some of these studies numbers were small and methods of REC analysis and morphological examination were inconsistent.…”

Tumour epithelial cellularity and quantitative oestrogen receptor values in primary breast cancer

“…This is a further source of potential error but little information is available concerning the relationship between measured RE concentration and epithelial tumour cellularity, since previous studies have used subjective methods only (Feherty et al, 1971;Terenius et al, 1974;Rosen et al, 1975;Masters et al, 1978 (Delesse, 1848;Dunnill, 1968 Sixty of the 100 patients were postmenopausal and 62 had RE-positive tumours (Table I). Measured cellularity ranged from 10%-92% (mean, 40%) (Figure 2).…”