Clinicopathological significance of intratumoural variations in elastosis grades and the oestrogen receptor status of human breast carcinomas.

Cryostat sections from seventy-eight female breast carcinomas were assayed for oestrogen receptors by isoelectric focusing. Adjacent cryostat sections stained by Miller's elastic/van Gieson's method were graded for elastosis. Elastosis was similarly graded on near-equatorial paraffin sections from the same tumours. A positive correlation was obtained between elastosis in the near equatorial sections and oestrogen receptor positivity (p less than 0.0005), menstrual status (p less than 0.05) and parity (p less than 0.01) but no correlation was found between these factors and elastosis graded on cryostat sections from the more peripheral areas which had been selected for oestrogen receptor assay. These observations suggest that the central region of breast carcinomas, where connective tissue responses are fully developed, exhibits grades of elastosis with greater clinical significance. This may explain the conflicting published observations on the correlations between elastosis and oestrogen receptor status, which we believe are due to the lack of uniformity in tissue sampling. The possible implications of the absence of significant correlation between elastosis grades and tumour size, nodal status and disease-free interval are discussed.