Endocrine ablation for metastatic breast cancer: a reappraisal of hormone receptors.

ABSTRACT

PIP Other indicators of hormone sensitivity, besides estrogen receptor (ER) content, such as response to oophorectomy, antiestrogens, prolactin suppression, and correlation with progesterone receptors (PR), were evaluated in the hope of further improving selectivity and response of patients undergoing endocrine ablation for metastatic breast cancers. 225 patients have undergone full endocrine ablation in the last 30 years at this hospital, 208 by adrenalectomy and 17 by hypophysectomy. 206 of these patients could be retrospectively reviewed, and of these there were objective responses to therapy in 50% of patients. ER analyses were performed in 1 or more breast cancer specimens in 113 of these patients. ER study showed that a patient who was ER+ and responded to a functional test of endocrine sensitivity had a 70-80% chance of also benefiting from adrenalectomy or hypophysectomy. Conversely, patients with absent or unknown hormone receptors who failed therapeutic trials of endocrine sensitivity had little or no chance of responding to major ablation; these cases are best treated with multiagent chemotherapy. The value of sequentially treating selected patients with endocrine manipulation in addition to chemotherapy was also studied. Patients who failed to respond to endocrine manupulation survived slightly over 2 years on chemotherapy, whereas patients who responded to major ablation lived with metastases an average of 4 years, whereas complete responders lived with metastatic disease an average of 6 years. By life table analysis, total survival of ER+ vs. ER- patients as well as responders vs. nonresponders was highly significant^ieng