Saez S, Martin P M, Chouvet C D
Cancer Res. 1978 Oct;38(10):3468-73.
Plasma estrogen and progesterone levels were determined in 77 premenopausal and 137 menopausal women at the same time that estradiol receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PGR) assays were carried out on their breast cancers. The frequency of ER and PGR is approximately the same in premenopausal and postmenopausal women, but the ER content is much higher in postmenopausal women. Although this is usually ascribed to the occupancy of receptors by endogenous estrogen in premenopausal women, our observations suggest that this is unlikely. The higher ER content in postmenopausal women is probably due to the fact that the cyclic progesterone increase in premenopausal women limits estrogen stimulation of ER synthesis. Our data suggest that the circulating levels of estrogen in postmenopausal women are sufficient to stimulate ER and PGR when ER is functional. In premenopausal women, on the other hand, high levels of circulating progesterone may inhibit PGR, and the absence of PGR in the breast cancers of premenopausal women should be interpreted warily if the plasma level of progesterone is unknown.
在对77名绝经前女性和137名绝经后女性的乳腺癌进行雌二醇受体（ER）和孕激素受体（PGR）检测的同时，测定了她们的血浆雌激素和孕激素水平。绝经前和绝经后女性中ER和PGR的频率大致相同，但绝经后女性的ER含量要高得多。虽然这通常归因于绝经前女性内源性雌激素占据了受体，但我们的观察结果表明情况不太可能如此。绝经后女性较高的ER含量可能是由于绝经前女性孕激素的周期性增加限制了雌激素对ER合成的刺激。我们的数据表明，当ER有功能时，绝经后女性的循环雌激素水平足以刺激ER和PGR。另一方面，在绝经前女性中，循环孕激素的高水平可能会抑制PGR，如果孕激素的血浆水平未知，那么对绝经前女性乳腺癌中PGR缺失的解读应该谨慎。
