Steroid receptors in pleural effusions of advanced breast cancer patients

Abstract

The steroid receptor content in breast carcinoma correlates with the responsiveness of malignant cells to endocrine manipulation. Although the steroid receptor status of the primary tumor is mostly used to select systemic therapy, it was suggested that steroid receptor content should be evaluated in metastatic lesions whenever possible. In this study the estrogen and progesterone receptor content was determined biochemically in 38 pleural effusions from advanced breast cancer patients. In 17/38 patients the steroid receptor status was assessed twice during the course of the disease - at diagnosis in the primary tumor/lymph nodes, and subsequently in metastatic pleural effusion fluid. A trend towards lower receptor values in pleural fluids was evident. There was no correlation between pleural steroid receptor content and pleural response to endocrine or chemo/endocrine therapy, indicating that the usefulness of effusional steroid receptors for therapy planning of advanced breast cancer could not be confirmed in this study.

High level of EGF-R expression in carcinomatous skin invasion: Does it reflect the tissue characteristics of the breast carcinoma aggressiveness?

“…Some localizations of tumor invasion have been found as most inconvenient for receptor determination. For example, steroid receptors determined by ligand binding method in pleural fluid cells have been shown as unreliable because of low cellularity of the samples and a possible contamination with the normal epithelial cells that require additional procedure for malignant cell separation (21). Similar problems may arise when steroid receptors are determined in skin lesions.…”