How is it used?
Estrogen and progesterone hormone receptor status tests are typically performed on all invasive
breast cancers. Hormone receptor status is used as a marker, and used to help guide the treatment of people with primary or recurrent breast cancer.
Those who have ER-positive and PR-positive tumors tend to have a better prognosis for disease-free survival and overall survival than those with ER-negative or PR-negative tumors. They are also much more likely to respond to endocrine therapy (anti-hormone treatments such as tamoxifen).
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When is it ordered?
Hormone receptor status testing is recommended as part of an initial workup of invasive
breast cancer. It is not diagnostic but helps the doctor to determine treatment options and to understand more about the tumor's characteristics.
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What does the test result mean?
In general, if a person's cancer is ER-positive and PR-positive, the patient will have a better-than-average , and their cancer is likely to respond to endocrine therapy (anti-hormone treatments). The more receptors present and the more intense their reaction, the more likely the response. If a person's cancer is ER-negative but PR-positive, or ER-positive but PR-negative, then she may still benefit from endocrine therapy but may have a diminished response.
If the cancer is both ER-negative and PR-negative, then the person will probably not benefit from endocrine therapy.
An individual's response to endocrine therapy will depend on a variety of factors, but typical response rates include:
- ER positive, PR positive: 75-80%
- ER positive, PR negative: 40-50%
- ER negative, PR positive: 25-30%
- ER negative, PR negative: 10% or less
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Is there anything else I should know?
Her-2/neu testing may be done at the same time as hormone receptor status testing. A patient with a positive estrogen and/or progesterone receptor status may find their response to endocrine therapy diminished if they are also Her-2/
neu-positive.
Hormone receptor status testing is not available in every laboratory. It requires experience and special training to perform and interpret. Your doctor will probably send your sample to a reference laboratory and it may take several weeks before your results are available.
It takes a small amount of cancer tissue to perform hormone receptor status testing. If a sufficient sample is not available, your doctor may make an assumption that your cancer is ER-positive and PR-positive in order to broaden your treatment options.
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