Estrogen receptors in human breast cancer. II. Correlation between the histochemical method and biochemical assay.

The present study defines criteria for determining the presence of estrogen-receptors in human breast carcinomas demonstrated by a histochemical assay using 17 beta-estradiol-carboxy-methyl-oxim-bovine serum albumen-FITC. The criteria were: 1) the percentage of cells showing fluorescence; 2) the intensity of the fluorescence observed, and 3) the percentage of epithelial structures in tissue specimens. Using these predefined criteria in 132 human breast carcinomas as 91.6% agreement was found between the results of the histochemical assay and those of the biochemical Charcoal method. The main causes of disagreement (7 of the 11 cases) were sampling errors between the tissue specimens used for the histochemical and biochemical assay, and an insufficient percentage of epithelial structures (less than 15%) to allow biochemical identification of estrogen receptor activity. In the hands of pathologists with experience of the field of histochemistry this histochemical assay may be the method of choice for the assessment of estrogen receptors.