Estrogen dependence of primary breast cancer--correlation with histologic type and grade.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether histologic type and grade of primary breast cancer are related to the estrogen and progesterone receptors. Our results showed that histologic type influenced the estrogen dependence through histologic grade. There was no difference in the estrogen and progesterone receptor content, when corresponding grades of different histologic types and estrogen dependence were confirmed by quantitative non-parametric analysis. It showed a direct relationship between estrogen and progesterone receptor content in all the three histologic grades and further that histologic grade defines three different groups in regard to progesterone receptor content.