The hormonal milieu in primary breast cancer: A correlation between steroid receptors and serum estradiol, progesterone and prolactin

Background and aim: the female breast is subjected to a life time of hormonalcontrols, whose effect is evident at the time of menarche and during the menstrualcycle, pregnancy and lactation. studies have reported multiple risk factors forbreast cancer, some of which are a reflection of hormonally mediated events. thesteroid receptors are also served as prognostic factors for evaluating the status ofmalignant tumor of the breast. estrogen receptor (er) and progesterone receptor(pgr) formation are influenced by estrogen and progesterone concentration. theaim of this study was to clarify the hormonal milieu of the breast cancer such asestradiol (e2), progesterone (pg), prolactin (prl) and their correlation withprognostic factors like er, pgr.methods: in this study, we examined fourthy-four samples removed from patientswith primary breast cancer by radical mastectomy. the specimens include thirtysix malignant and eight benign breast tissues. blood samples were also obtainedbefore surgery. steroid receptors was assayed by the method of single-pointdextrane-coated charcoal (dcc), hormones by radioimmunoassay.results: the results demonstrated that serum prolactin was higher in patients withbenign and malignant tumors than that of normal (progesterone < 0.05). it has beenobserved that the frequency of pgr+ tumors was higher in patients with serum e2more than 10 pg/ml than those of less than 10 pg/ml; whereas, when comparisonwas made between the patients with serum pg > 1.5 ng/ml and those of < 1.5 ng/ml,it was found that the frequency of pgr+ tumors was lower in the formers than thelatters ones.conclusion: it can be concluded that estrogen, up-regulated and progesteronedown-regulate the induction of pgr and the breast tumors probably produce highlevels of prolactin.