ArticlePathology oncology research : POR2018
Re-Appraisal of Estrogen Receptor Negative/Progesterone Receptor Positive (ER-/PR+) Breast Cancer Phenotype: True Subtype or Technical Artefact?
Article in Pathology oncology research : POR, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Association of progesterone receptor status with breast cancer prognosis: a meta-analysis.World journal of surgical oncology · 2025Pooled it
- Higher ER load is not associated with better outcome in stage 1-3 breast cancer: a descriptive overview of quantitative HR analysis in operable breast cancer.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2019Pooled it
- Dexamethasone Suppresses Already Low Estrogen Receptor Levels in Meningiomas.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Prognosis of primary breast salivary gland-type carcinoma: a propensity score-matching analysis with invasive carcinoma of no special type based on the SEER database for years 2010-2020.Breast cancer (Tokyo, Japan) · 2024Article
- Clinicopathological characteristics and prognostic analysis of breast cancer with a hormone receptor status of ER(-)/PR(+).Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023Article
- Article
- Advanced Breast Cancer: AGO Recommendations 2022 - Focus on ABC6 Consensus.Geburtshilfe und Frauenheilkunde · 2022Article
- ABC6 Consensus: Assessment by a Group of German Experts.Breast care (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Review
- Prognostic Relevance of Estrogen Receptor Status in Circulating Tumor Cells in Breast Cancer Patients Treated With Endocrine Therapy.Frontiers in oncology · 2022Article
- The impact of progesterone receptor negativity on oncological outcomes in oestrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer.BJS open · 2021Article
- Phenotypic discordance between primary and metastatic breast cancer in the large-scale real-life multicenter French ESME cohort.NPJ breast cancer · 2021Article
- Is oestrogen receptor-negative/progesterone receptor-positive (ER-/PR+) a real pathological entity?Ecancermedicalscience · 2021Article
- Circulating anti-Müllerian hormone and breast cancer risk: A study in ten prospective cohorts.International journal of cancer · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Expression of the ER and PR receptors is routinely quantified in breast cancer as a predictive marker of response to hormonal therapy. Accurate determination of ER and PR status is critical to the optimal selection of patients for targeted therapy. The existence of an ER-/PR+ subtype is controversial, with debate centred on whether this represents a true phenotype or a technical artefact on immunohistochemistry (IHC). The aim of this study was to investigate the true incidence and clinico-pathological features of ER-/PR+ breast cancers in a tertiary referral symptomatic breast unit. Clinico-pathological data were collected on invasive breast cancers diagnosed between 1995 and 2005. IHC for ER and PR receptors was repeated on all cases which were ER-/PR+, with the same paraffin block used for the initial diagnostic testing. Concordance between the diagnostic and repeat IHC was determined using validated testing. Complete data, including ER and PR status were available for 697 patients diagnosed during the study period. On diagnostic IHC, the immunophenotype of the breast tumours was: ER+/PR+ in 396 (57%), ER-/PR- in 157 (23%), ER+/PR- in 88 (12%) and ER-/PR+ in 56 (8.6%) patients. On repeat IHC of 48/56 ER-/PR+ tumours 45.8% were ER+/PR+, 6% were ER+/PR- and 43.7% were ER-/PR- None of the cases were confirmed to be ER-/PR+. The ER-/PR+ phenotypic breast cancer is likely to be the result of technical artefact. Prompt reassessment of patients originally assigned to this subtype who re-present with symptoms should be considered to ensure appropriate clinical management.
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