Estrogen Receptor and Progesterone Receptor Status in Breast Cancer in Relation to Age, Histological Grade, Size of Lesion and Lymph Node Involvement

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most common malignancy of women in Kashmir. This study was conductedwith the objective of assessing hormone receptor positivity and its correlation with age at diagnosis, tumor size,histological grade and lymph node metastasis. Materials and
Methods: 132 newly diagnosed cases of invasivebreast cancer diagnosed at the Department of Pathology, SKIMS, Srinagar, J&K, were included after excludingbiopsies, in-situ lesions and recurrence cases.
Results: Mean age of the patients was 48.2 years, 59.1% being≤50 years of age. Mean duration of symptoms was 6.32 months. Most lesions (65.1%) were 2-5 cm and 16.7%were ≥5.0 cm in greatest dimension. The predominant (80.3%) morphology was IDC-NOS. The majority of thecases presented as grade II (52.1%) lesions and lymph node involvement was present in 65.2%. ER and PRwere positive in 66.3% and 63.4% cases, respectively, increasing with rising age. High grade lesions and largersize tumors were more likely to be ER and PR negative. No correlation was found between ER/PR status andlymph node metastasis.
Conclusions: ER and PR expression in breast cancers in the current study was found tobe higher than studies done in India/Asia but lower than studies conducted in the West, even on Indian/Asianimmigrants. Markedly lower receptor expression in Indian/Asian studies is likely due to preanalytic variables,thresholds for positivity, and interpretation criteria. American Society of Clinical Oncology/College of AmericanPathologists Guideline Recommendations for Immunohistochemical Testing of Estrogen and ProgesteroneReceptors in Breast Cancer are strongly advocated for standardization of receptor evaluation and for clinicalmanagement of breast cancer patients to provide best therapeutic options.