Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Steroid receptors were determined by the dextran-coated charcoal method in 193 breast cancer patients in different clinical stages of disease.Quantitative estrogen and progesterone values in primary tumors (n = 69) were compared with receptors in regional lymph node metastases (n = 28) and in distant malignant deposits (n = 65).The groups including receptor values from primaries and regional lymph node metastases (n = 15) and from primaries and distant metastatic lesions (n = 16) in the same patients were also analyzed.The obtained results indicated relative stability of both receptors in loco-regional disease, but with a tendency towards lower receptor values in lesions from advanced disease.This tendency is probably caused by the disease progression itself, but the influence of radioor chemotherapy cannot be excluded.Estrogen and progesterone receptor levels of primary tumors are often used as a guide for systemic therapy at breast cancer relapse.However, the stability of steroid receptor values during disease progression and/or after chemo-or radiotherapy or endocrine therapy is still a matter of discussion.Various data concerning steroid receptor levels in primaries and regional lymph node metastases have been reported ( 1-3).However, remarkably fewer papers on steroid receptor status in distant malignant lesions have been presented (4).In papers discussing receptor status in simultaneous or subsequent biopsies of breast cancer mostly qualitative receptor values have been reported.In the present study we compared qualitative and quantitative steroid receptor values from primaries with values from regional metastatic lymph nodes and different other secondary lesions (distant metastases and skin in-
Branković-Magić et al. (Wed,) studied this question.