[Relation between the levels of estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor and clinicopathological status in human endometrial carcinomas].

Estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) assays were performed by direct fluorescent histochemical methods in 20 endometrial carcinomas and 9 endometria of para-carcinomas. ER + and PR + were found in the patients who had not received chemotherapy and/or radiotherapies. In 4 adenosquamous carcinomas, the contents of ER and PR of adenocarcinoma components were higher than those of squamous carcinoma components. Blocking tests proved the specificity of ER and PR for estradiol and progesterone respectively. The levels of ER and PR in endometria of para-carcinomas were higher than those in carcinomas. There were higher levels of ER and PR in early clinical stage than in advanced stage, in cases free from cervical involvement than in cases cervical involvement, and in well differentiated carcinomas than in poorly differentiated carcinomas. ER and PR contents did not correlate with the depth of myometrial invasion or menopausal status. In the patient group followed up for half a year or more, 4 patients with high-level ER and PR had a good response to 17 alpha-progesterone caprate. The patients with ER + and PR + had a longer survival period than those with ER- and PR-. Our results indicated that the assay of ER and PR might be valuable for predicting the response to endocrine therapy and prognosis for patients with endometrial carcinoma.