Background: Breast cancer is the most diagnosed cancer among women worldwide, accounting for almost 1 in 4 cancer cases. It is the second most frequent and the leading cause of death from cancer in women. In breast cancer, assessment of hormonal receptor status is fundamental having both prognostic and predictive role. The studies that focused on the impact of estrogen receptor (ER) expression showed controversial results. So in this study our aim was to determine the effect of ER expression on disease recurrence and survival in non-metastatic breast cancer patients.
Patients and methods : This is a retrospective study including 110 non metastatic breast cancer patients with the exclusion of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (Her2) positive cases starting from January 2006 to December 2010. Patients were divided into three groups hormonal negative (0%), low/ intermediate (1-50%) and strong (51-100%) ER expression according to the quantitative ER measurement.
Results: There was a positive correlation between the level of ER expression and overall survival (OS) which was not true for disease free survival (DFS).
Conclusion: The relation between the level of ER expression and survival was significant while there was no significant relation to disease recurrence.