RESEARCH ARTICLE Outcomes of Estrogen Receptor Negative and Progesterone Receptor Positive Breast Cancer

Abstract

Purpose To describe the clinical features and outcomes of estrogen receptor negative (ER-) and pro-gesterone receptor positive (PgR+) breast cancer. Methods We retrospectively reviewed a well-characterized database of sequential patients diag-nosed with early stage invasive breast carcinoma. Outcomes of interest were time to relapse (TTR) and overall survival (OS). Multivariable Cox proportional hazards analysis was conducted to assess the association of ER-/PgR+ with TTR and OS in comparison to ER+ and to ER- and PgR negative (ER-/PgR-) tumors irrespective of HER2 status. ER and PgR expression was conservatively defined as 10 % or greater staining of cancer cells. Results 815 patients were followed for a median of 40.5 months; 56 patients (7%) had ER-/PgR+, 624 (77%) had ER+ and 136 (17%) had ER-/PgR- phenotypes. Compared with ER+ tumors, ER-/PgR+ tumors were associated with younger age (50 versus 59 years, p=0.03)