Abstract

Breast cancer specimens from 77 patients were assayed for the presence of progesterone receptors (PR) utilizing the biochemical assay (Dextran Coated Charcoal) and immunohistochemical assay (ICA). The PR status of these patients were evaluated in respect to age and size of the tumor, axillary lymph-node metastasis, and cell differentiation according to the each method. The number of PR positive tumor was 23 cases (29.9%) in DCC and 42 cases (54.5%) in PR-ICA. The concordance of both assays is 0.304. There was no correlation between PR status and the age of patients in both assays. There was increase of PR expression in smaller tumor, but that was significanfin only ICA (P<0.05). The relationship between axillary lymph- node metastasis and PR expression was not proven by ICA but there was significant increase of PR positive ratio in lesser axillary lymph-node metastasis with DCC method (P<0.05). The relationship between TNM stage and PR expression was not proven by ICA method but there was significant increase of PR positive ratio in early TNM stage with DCC method (P<0.05). The relationship between histologic grade and PR expression was not observed. In this study, the results of ICA showed higher expression rate than DCC method. The ICA was correlated with the size of tumor, while the DCC assay was correlated with the axillary lymph-node metastasis and stage.

• Keywords: Breast carcinoma, Progesterone receptor