Value of steroid hormone receptor analysis in predicting time to treatment failure in operable breast cancer.

An analysis of prognostic factors for predicting time to treatment failure (TTF) was performed on 246 patients who were referred for adjuvant chemotherapy after mastectomy. Oestrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PgR) analyses were carried out on 172 and 102 patients respectively. Prognostic factors predicting for TTF were, in decreasing order of significance: nodal status, tumour size, ER status and age of the patient. Comparison of TTF for ER+ and ER- (without categories of other prognostic factors) showed that ER status is prognostic irrespective of nodal status. ER is prognostically significant within both categories of PgR. PgR predicted significantly for TTF only in patients without nodal involvement.