Oestrogen and progesterone receptors in Nigerian breast cancer: relationship to tumour histopathology and survival of patients.

BACKGROUND

Expression of oestrogen receptors (ER) and progesterone receptors (PR) in breast carcinomas identifies patients that are more likely to respond to adjuvant therapy.

OBJECTIVES

Our aim was to evaluate the prevalence and prognostic value of histologically confirmed ER and PR immunoreactivity in breast carcinoma seen at Calabar, Nigeria.

DESIGN

Cross sectional study.

SETTING

University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Nigeria.

SUBJECT

Sections of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded samples from 129 breast carcinomas were immunostained for ER and PR.

RESULTS

ER and PR were immunohistochemically detected in 24.0% and 13.9%, respectively, of the breast carcinomas. The staining results were significantly associated, though negatively, with the axillary lymph node status, clinical stage, and histological grade. In survival analysis of the whole material, neither ER nor PR positivity showed any prognostic value. In the premenopausal group, both ER and PR showed a prognostic potential. However, they had no independent prognostic value.

CONCLUSION

Further studies to assess the frequency and prognostic values of these hormone receptors in breast cancers, after standardized processing and a longer follow up period may be necessary to validate these findings. Furthermore, a consensus must be developed for scoring and reporting ER/PR in Nigerian material.