Objective: To analyze the characteristics of hormone receptor status in Chinese females with breast cancer.
Methods: The clinicopathological data of 5758 female breast cancer patients surgically treated in our breast cancer center from Jan. 1997 to Oct. 2008 were retrospectively analyzed.
Results: The positive rates of estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) were 64.1% and 70.2%, respectively. The ER positive rate was significantly higher in elderly, post-menopausal females with a smaller tumor and well-differentiated histology (P < 0.05), while the PR positive rate was significantly correlated with only histological differentiation and tumor size (P < 0.05). The ER and PR positive rates were significantly higher in the patients with lymph node metastasis than that in those without (P < 0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that the histological differentiation, T stage, N stage and menopause status were significantly correlated with ER positive rate, while histological differentiation, T stage and N stage were significantly correlated with PR positive rate.
Conclusion: Our results show that the ER positive rate of breast cancer in Chinese women is lower than that in western high incidence areas. The ER positive rate is significantly correlated with age, histological differentiation, tumor size, and menopause status. The PR positive rate is correlated only with histological differentiation and tumor size. Interestingly, the ER and PR positive rates are significantly higher in the patients with axillary lymph node metastases than that in those without. However, further study is needed to verify this special phenomenon.