Is endocrine status relevant to treatment planning in patients with gynaecological cancer?

The presence or absence of steroid receptors in breast carcinomas has an important influence on prognosis and response to hormonal therapy. Data on the receptor content of endometrial carcinomas and sarcomas and of ovarian tumours are fast accruing but the clinical relevance of the receptor content of these gynaecological tumours remains to be fully assessed. Overall, 76% of endometrial carcinomas are oestrogen receptor (ER) positive and 74% progesterone receptor (PR) positive. Poorly-differentiated tumours are less likely to be receptor positive as are deeply invasive tumours. The presence of ER and PR have been shown to be a good guide to eventual hormonal therapy, but this is not absolute; actual receptor levels seem to be important. Information on receptors in uterine sarcomas is too scanty at present to be evaluated. Approximately 64% of epithelial ovarian tumours contain ER, 42% PR and 46% androgen receptor (AR); the presence of such receptors may point to a better prognosis, but correlations between receptor status and response to hormonal agents such as progestogens and tamoxifen have not been studied.