Correlation between immunohistochemically determined oestrogen receptor content, using monoclonal antibodies, and qualitative and quantitative tissue features in ductal breast cancer

Previous studies have shown that oestrogen receptor content in breast cancer was correlated with qualitative and also, more strongly, with quantitative nuclear features in tissue sections. However, even with the better reproducible quantitative microscopical assessments, the variance in the correlation with oestrogen receptor was considerable. This might be due to the implicit problems of oestrogen receptor determination with the biochemical assay. Therefore, receptor content was studied using monoclonal antibodies in 50 consecutive invasive ductal breast cancers. Oestrogen receptor status was compared with qualitative features and with the mean and standard deviation of the nuclear area, morphometrically evaluated on immunostained and adjacent haematoxylin and eosin stained sections. In agreement with earlier observations, nearly all tumours with prominent elastosis were oestrogen receptor positive; but a minority of negative cases also showed elastosis. The correlation between the other qualitative features and receptor status was weak. A significant inverse correlation (P less than 0.001) existed between the receptor status and the mean and standard deviation of the nuclear area. Even with the highly reproducible morphometrical analysis, correlation between nuclear oestrogen receptor content and quantitative nuclear features was relatively weak. This might indicate that receptor status and nuclear morphometric features reflect different biological characteristics of breast cancers.