D. Coradini et al., RECEPTOR STATUS VARIATION IN PRIMARY BREAST-CANCER AND SUBSEQUENT ACCESSIBLE RELAPSE, International journal of oncology, 8(5), 1996, pp. 997-1002
To better understand the prognostic relevance of change in steroid rec
eptor status, during the clinical course of breast cancer, we analysed
the variation of estrogen and progesterone receptor (ER, PgR) status
in a series of 532 primary tumors and metachronous accessible recurren
ces in individual patients. A more consistent variation was observed i
n patients with a receptor-positive primary (ER(+) or PgR(+)) than in
those with a receptor-negative tumor (ER(-) or PgR(-)). Forty-four per
cent of PgR(+) and 24% of ER(+) tumors became negative, whereas only 2
0% of ER(-) or PgR(-) became positive. The changes were independent of
tumor stage and menopausal status. However, steroid receptor variatio
n appeared to be related to the interval between the primary tumor and
relapse. In fact, the changes from ER(+) to ER(-) were more frequent
in patients with a disease-free survival of less than 1 year, whereas
changes from ER(-) to ER(+) occurred more often in patients with a dis
ease-free survival of more than 3 years. Moreover, we observed a decre
ase in the number of ER(+) tumors following hormone treatment and a de
crease in ER(-) tumors following chemotherapy. However, such variation
s did not reach statistical significance. Irrespective of the type of
adjuvant therapy, the presence of at least one receptor (in particular
, PgR) in the metachronous lesion was correlated with a long median ti
me to relapse and to death. Our results confirmed the predictive relev
ance of receptor status of the primary lesion on relapse and survival
and suggest the predictive relevance of receptor status of the metachr
onous lesion on post-relapse survival.