Steroid receptors and response to endocrine treatment and chemotherapy of advanced breast cancer.

The remission rates after endocrine and cytostatic treatment were determined in 192 female patients with advanced breast cancer depending on the estrogen, progesterone, and androgen receptor content and on the disease-dominant site. Of 60 women with tumors containing estradiol receptors 39 responded to endocrine treatment. This was only true in two of 31 women without estradiol receptors. Tumors which contained binding sites for both estradiol and progesterone had a higher remission rate after endocrine therapy than those with estradiol receptors only. Remission rates after polychemotherapy were also higher in tumors with binding sites for estradiol as well as for progesterone. The localisation of metastases seems to be of lesser importance for the remission rate than the receptor content. Liver metastases are an exception. Here, no remissions could be observed with endocrine treatment even if ER and PR were present. The median remission rate was 9 months for hormonally treated patients and 10 months for those undergoing chemotherapy. The median survival time after chemotherapy is 18 months higher for responders than for non-responders. This difference is 15 months with endocrine treatment. Two years after the start of endocrine treatment 60% of the responders but only 20% of the non-responders were still alive. Based on our results together with histomorphological studies and the evaluation of recurrence and survival it can be assumed that carcinomas, which by nature follow a more benign course, do contain estradiol receptors.