Frequency of Estrogen and Progesterone receptor status in Breast Cancer patients: A single institutional experience

Abstract

Introduction: Breast cancer is hormone related disease and concerned hormones are Estrogen and Progesterone. Not all patients with breast cancer are positive for Estrogen receptor(ER) and Progesterone receptor (PR). Western literature shows majority of patients have positivity for ER /PR or both but our experience at Allied Hospital is different as majority of patients have negativity especially the young patients. The objective of this study is to determine the frequency of ER and PR status in breast cancer patients. Material and Methods: Duration of study: January 2010 to December 2011.Study design: Descriptive case series. Place of study: Department of Clinical Oncology Punjab Medical College /Allied Hospital Faisalabad. Sample Size: All breast cancer patients visited our department in two years in all age groups. Data collection and analysis: Data was collected and entered in specified proforma and analysed manually. Results: Total number of patients enrolled in this study were 866(100%) out of which

860(99.3%) were female and 6(0.7%) were ale. 470 (55%) female patients were premenopausal and 390 (45%) were postmenopausal. Immunohistochemical staining was done in 396(45.7%) only others were not affording for it. ER positive, PR positive (both) were 130 (32.8%) patients and both negative were 205 (51.8%). ER positive, PR negative were 40(10.1%) and ER negative, PR positive were 21(5.3%). Among 214(54%) premenopausal patients, both positive were 70(32.7%), both negative were 116 patients (54.2%), ER +ve /PR –ve 18 (8.4%) and ER –ve /PR +ve were10 patients (4.7%). Among 182(46%) postmenopausal patients both positive were 65(35.7%) and both negative were 93 patients (51.1%). ER +ve / PR –ve were18 (9.9%) and ER –ve/ PR +ve were 6 (3.3%).Conclusion: Hormone receptor positivity is less than the negativity especially in premenopausal females.