Hormone receptor status in breast cancer and its relation to age and other prognostic factors.

BACKGROUND

Increasing evidence shows the importance of young age, estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) status, and HER-2 expression in patients with breast cancers.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We organized an analytic cross-sectional study of 105 women diagnosed with breast cancer who have been operated on between 2008 to 2010. We evaluated age, size, hormone receptor status, HER-2 and P53 expression as possible indicator of lymph node involvement.

RESULTS

There is a direct correlation between positive progesterone receptor status and being younger than 40 (P < 0.05). Also, compared with older women, young women had tumors that were more likely to be large in size and have higher stages (P < 0.05). Furthermore patients with negative progesterone receptor status were more likely to have HER-2 overexpression (P < 0.05). The differences in propensity to lymph node metastasis between hormone receptor statuses were not statically significant.

CONCLUSIONS

Although negative progesterone receptor tumors were more likely to have HER-2 overexpression, it is possible that higher stage and larger size breast cancer in younger women is related to positive progesterone receptor status.