Receptors in Breast Cancer

Abstract

Estrogen Receptor and Endocrine Therapy of Breast CancerSINCE the pioneering work of George Beatson,¹ who induced tumor regressions in patients with advanced breast cancer by oophorectomy, it has been appreciated that some human breast cancers will respond to endocrine manipulations. It is established that patients who respond to such endocrine therapies have not only palliation of their disease but increased survival as well. Unfortunately, no more than about a third of unselected patients with metastatic breast cancer will have objective tumor regressions after initiation of endocrine therapy. Thus, if endocrine therapies are applied nonselectively, the majority of patients will . . .